Frederick Deknatel
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freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Frederick Deknatel
@freddydeknatel.bsky.social
2.4K followers 3.2K following 2.3K posts
Journalist, fellow at Century International, editor of Hidden Cities: https://hiddencities.substack.com/

Previously: Founding executive editor, Democracy in Exile @dawnmenaorg.bsky.social; managing editor @wpr.bsky.social; staff editor @foreignaffairs.com
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Reposted by Frederick Deknatel
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
"For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy."

Megaproject fiascos, an overdrawn sovereign wealth fund and speculative, crony real estate schemes won’t create MBS's “thriving economy.”
But behind these undeniable social changes is the specter of economic failure rising from giant, doomed construction sites like Neom. For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but rather the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy—misallocating resources and investing state funds on white elephant development projects, so many of which are based on speculative, luxury real estate, rather than on social services, like education or public health, or needed public infrastructure that would serve most Saudis. Indeed, it is a trap that much of the Middle East has fallen into. MBS’ vaunted Vision 2030 development agenda was not just a plan to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. It was a way to concentrate power in the crown prince’s hands and manufacture a personalist regime around him, something his father and previous Saudi kings, who vested their authority in the monarchy itself, never really constructed. But Vision 2030 was also a bet that Saudi Arabia could “transform itself into a real-estate empire,” as Colin Powers, a senior fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at Noria Research, has argued. This is what really underpins Neom and MBS’ other vanity projects: vast speculative real estate, modeled on Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates, which the Saudis see as both their partner and rival. When MBS talks of turning Riyadh into a new Dubai, this is what he means: A Saudi economy transitioned away from oil, according to Vision 2030, but with real estate as its new engine of growth.
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
"For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy."

Megaproject fiascos, an overdrawn sovereign wealth fund and speculative, crony real estate schemes won’t create MBS's “thriving economy.”
But behind these undeniable social changes is the specter of economic failure rising from giant, doomed construction sites like Neom. For all their utopian dreams, the megaprojects championed by MBS don’t signal the future, but rather the trap represented by Saudi Arabia’s political economy—misallocating resources and investing state funds on white elephant development projects, so many of which are based on speculative, luxury real estate, rather than on social services, like education or public health, or needed public infrastructure that would serve most Saudis. Indeed, it is a trap that much of the Middle East has fallen into. MBS’ vaunted Vision 2030 development agenda was not just a plan to diversify the kingdom’s oil-dependent economy. It was a way to concentrate power in the crown prince’s hands and manufacture a personalist regime around him, something his father and previous Saudi kings, who vested their authority in the monarchy itself, never really constructed. But Vision 2030 was also a bet that Saudi Arabia could “transform itself into a real-estate empire,” as Colin Powers, a senior fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at Noria Research, has argued. This is what really underpins Neom and MBS’ other vanity projects: vast speculative real estate, modeled on Dubai and the rest of the United Arab Emirates, which the Saudis see as both their partner and rival. When MBS talks of turning Riyadh into a new Dubai, this is what he means: A Saudi economy transitioned away from oil, according to Vision 2030, but with real estate as its new engine of growth.
November 25, 2025 at 2:22 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Part travelogue, part global news brief, Hidden Cities is a magazine that illuminates the world at a time when too many are looking inward, away from it. Subscribe! hiddencities.substack.com
Hidden Cities | Frederick Deknatel | Substack
Part travelogue, part global news brief, Hidden Cities is a magazine that illuminates the world. Click to read Hidden Cities, by Frederick Deknatel, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers...
hiddencities.substack.com
November 24, 2025 at 7:22 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Shouting this from the rooftops: bsky.app/profile/fred...
freddydeknatel.bsky.social Frederick Deknatel @freddydeknatel.bsky.social · 8d
Sarah Hurwitz is not alone among prominent Democrats in blaming social media rather than the war. She suggests video of "carnage in Gaza" is somehow not real—that it "smashes our young people's brains all day long" and prevents "data and information and facts" about Israel from breaking through.
ladyemily.nebula.tv Lady Emily ☄️ @ladyemily.nebula.tv · 8d
Sharing the video of this because it’s such a ghoulish thing to say that I’m honestly in disbelief that I even heard her properly
November 24, 2025 at 5:25 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
The one time Borowitz actually landed a joke.
bsky.app/profile/boro...
borowitzreport.bsky.social The Borowitz Report @borowitzreport.bsky.social · 4d
Rubio Admits Difficulties in Translating US Peace Plan from the Original Russian
November 23, 2025 at 11:08 PM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Meanwhile, in Congress:
November 22, 2025 at 2:27 AM
freddydeknatel.bsky.social
Mamdani did more to focus the Democrats’ message around FDR and the New Deal (which… of course they should!) than any prominent Democrat has in years. And he got Trump to go along!

bsky.app/profile/pale...
paleofuture.bsky.social Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 6d
"We have a great portrait of FDR that I found in the vaults that was missing for years. I found it and I put it up. He's a Democrat, to the best of my knowledge...

And when the mayor saw that portrait, he said, Sir, do you mind if I have a picture taken by that portrait?' It's an amazing portrait."
November 22, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by Frederick Deknatel
nitishpahwa.com
every so-called moderate who refused to endorse Mamdani for whatever nonsense reasoning around The Deep-Red Heartland must be spiraling rn bsky.app/profile/fred...
freddydeknatel.bsky.social Frederick Deknatel @freddydeknatel.bsky.social · 6d
It's priceless that 86 Democrats, including leadership, voted for a pathetic Republican messaging bill about the "horrors" of socialism and Zohran just… charmed Trump and got him to gush about FDR and the New Deal.
November 21, 2025 at 9:40 PM