Giddy Heights: Boom in the Gulf

Balazs Gardi for TIME

DREAMSCAPE: Dubai is the ultimate boomtown

Today's accumulation of riches in the Gulf is the stuff of dreams. Soaring profits from oil and natural gas are driving the region's wealth into the stratosphere. Henry Azzam, who heads Deutsche Bank's Middle East operations from a sleek suite of offices in the Dubai International Financial Center, is relishing this historic windfall. "We're becoming the epicenter of the global economy," he marvels. But Azzam has his worries. He sees the recent fighting in Lebanon, for instance, as a proxy war between the U.S. and Iran that could lead to an American military strike on Iran, Dubai's neighbor: "Political and military...

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