Is Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar The New 1980s Texas Collaspe?

These guys real estate build-up and borrowing on a host of projects dwarfs 1980s and current Texas build up. And they are only tiny populations and countries.  

Stock markets in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar crashed

Stock prices in Gulf states nose dived on Sunday in a massive market sell-off sparked by descending oil prices, with the Saudi and Dubai bourses leading the slide.

But now, when everything is looking so rosy, it might be a good time to remember those bumper stickers. The boom of the early 1980s was caused by drillers reacting to record high prices. But, as always, the best cure for high prices was high prices, and the rampant drilling (paired with reduced demand for pricey crude) resulted in an oil glut. From 1981 to 1986 the price of oil plunged from $37 a barrel to $14 (nominal dollars). 

As prices collapsed, the drilling rigs so recently in hot demand fell silent. The Texas boom ended. It wasn’t long before the million of square feet of “see-through” office buildings, built on spec and sitting empty, became the basis for the Savings & Loan crisis.

The Tadawul All-Shares Index in Riyadh, the Gulf's leading market, shed 549.51 points, or 6.86%, to close at 7,463.32 points.

The kingdom's all-important petrochemicals industry lost 7.94%, while the real-estate sector tumbled 9.50%.

In Dubai, the leading DFM Index slumped 6.96% to close at 3,451.48 points.

Real-estate developer Emaar Properties lost 8.31% while builder Arabtec Construction, another market leader, dropped 9.6%, nearing its 10% daily limit.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange plunged 5%, while Qatar Exchange, the second largest in the Gulf, lost almost 5.3%.

The Kuwait Stock Exchange shed 2.36%, while Muscat Securities Market and Bahrain lost 2.94% and 0.37%, respectively.

The falls across the region come after oil prices slid to new lows during trade Friday, with New York's light sweet crude plunging to $40.04 per barrel, the lowest level since March 2009.

World stock markets were also hammered with heavy losses on Friday, as China's economic woes triggered European and Wall Street equity sell-offs and stirred up fears for global growth.