Basically, the way the story goes is that Saudi Arabia is constructing a new city to help spur economic growth for its citizens. They have also recently(?) become a member of the World Trade Organization. Anyway, my brother mentioned this to me a few days ago, adding that HE had also heard that the U.S. government is helping to fund the construction of this new city.

After a bit of quick research online I found some helpful info about the new city but I didn't find anything having to do with U.S. involvement. It is apparent though that they want people to invest in the project. I'd still like to find any evidence of the American government's overt contribution but I just heard about this so it may be false.


Here are a few links to give you a better idea:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=051220165102.rfmm4n2n&show_article=1

http://www.kingabdullahcity.com/en/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Abdullah_Economic_City


What do you all think? I'm still learning about all of this. Obviously, U.S. dollars are going to Saudi Arabia all of the time, but whether or not there is anything similar to "Use this money for your new city!" going on is what I am curious about. I suppose it may be old news to some but I found the whole topic pretty interesting and worthy of discussion.

wutever u shuld invaed saudi arabia, bomb mecca and film it in hd already geez

Why build an unneeded city? If there was a need for a new city, it would have sprung up naturally. I wonder how a government builds a city, anyway. A government would never be able to balance a city as well as citizens and industry acting autonomously.

Read Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

U.S. engineering and construction firms vie for contracts in countries such as Saudi Arabia in order to indebt and, by extension, politically tie those countries. Saudi Arabia, with its vast wealth from oil, has been building and building for the past few decades because it has more money than it can spend and it might as well spend it on infrastructure and buildings that will have a virtually infinite depreciation schedule.