Thinking like Riad

A lot of people are wondering about the ubiquitous circulars issued by the central bank of Lebanon, Banque du Liban. Some are contradictory with the legislative branch’s proposed capital control law, while others contradict its very own earlier circulars. Is it confusion or is there a plan? 

Two weeks ago, the World Bank published a report that received a lot of mileage in the press, because of a snippet that described the Lebanese crisis as one of the worst in over a century. In terms of size, i.e. relative to current and projected GDP, there’s no question they’re right. A journalist talked to me last week, quoting this report, but he couldn’t reconcile the incongruity between the report and what he saw in the overflowing bars of Gemmayzeh, restaurants and beaches. In some ways, Lebanon is Caracas on weekdays and spring break in Florida on weekends. I told him that to u...
[Courte citation de 8% de l'article original]