Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Dubai's Economic Future Depends on Paris | Paris Hilton is going to have a lot of work ahead of her if she expects to stimulate the Dubai real estate market. A survey issued today reports that residential prices there plummeted 19 percent during the month of October. [WSJ, previously]

Dubai Gets Desperate, Makes Offer to Paris Hilton | An Abu Dhabi-based developer, Hydra Properties, has reportedly offered Paris Hilton $2 million to lend her name to a set of apartment buildings in Dubai. (Naturally, the buildings will be named "Paris Hilton Towers" if she agrees to the deal.) This is the same company, we should point out, that tapped Antonio Banderas as a company pitchman a few months ago, which suggests either real estate developers in the Gulf are getting very desperate or there's a rich sheikh out there looking to get lucky. [Gulf News via Curbed]

Stocks were pummeled once again today with the Dow shedding 500 points and the S&P falling to its lowest level since April 21, 2003. Normally at a time like this, we'd direct your attention to the blog Sad Guys on Trading Floors, or even the more recent Brokers With Hands on Their Faces. In the spirit of diversity, though, we thought we'd mix it up and introduce you to a brand new photo feature, which we're officially calling Sad Arab Traders Wearing Kaffiyehs and Holding Their Hands to Their Faces. More pics after the jump.More

Coming to America | The very first Airbus A380 "superjumbo" jet is scheduled to fly into JFK tomorrow afternoon, filled to capacity with 489 well-heeled people from Dubai. (It's an Emirates flight.) Great news for the numerous New Yorkers who travel there frequently, sure. Even better news for the city's property owners, who will have likely unloaded half a dozen office towers in Midtown by tomorrow evening. [Crain's]

If it feels like every week brings news of yet another cash-strapped American company raising money from Abu Dhabi or Dubai or selling itself entirely to one of these emirates, it isn't your imagination. From real estate (the GM building) to finance (Citigroup), cash has been pouring in from the Middle East as of late. But the expressway of money goes in both directions. Today the Times covered many of the banks setting up shop in Dubai. But loads of other prominent New Yorkers are heading East to take advantage of the petro-dollar gravy train. Here's a look at the growing list of prominent restaurateurs, fashion designers, architects, and real estate developers setting up shop in one of the world's fastest-growing—and richest—regions.

Fashion
You don't have to manufacture diamond-encrusted burkas to get in on petrobillionaires' wives' ravenous appetite for designer duds. New York-based fashion gurus are opening boutiques in Dubai's constantly multiplying high-end malls (places like the famous Mall of the Emirates, which sports the world's largest indoor ski slope). So far Michael Kors and Betsey Johnson have gotten in on the action, there are two Calvin Klein boutiques in the emirate, an outpost of Saks Fifth Avenue recently opened there, and designer Karl Lagerfeld has signed a deal to design 80 limited-edition homes on Isla Moda, the world's "first dedicated fashion island." A Dubai outpost of Barneys seems likely in light of its 2007 takeover by Dubai-based investment firm Isthimar.More