Analytical approaches to economic rescue plans for Lebanon

Lebanon’s political economy today is in a situation where risks are existential and inaction opens the gates to disaster, but potential payoffs are highly skewed to the upside—if successful. This suggests that the newly eager-for-action behaviors in the political class—which appear in many ways counter intuitive to previous decision-making patterns here—convey at least a modicum of hope. Besides rapid action determination by the current political cohort, what is accentuating the potential for optimism further into the realm of rational hope (as opposed to groundless speculations), is the growing count of emergency rescue proposals (which according to Executive’s information is set to increase further) drafted by local and expatriate stakeholders (see story). This emergence provides both hope—based on the surge of desire and mental commitments for resolving the Lebanese mess—and an incentive for rational analysis by anyone from the concerned government ministers to members of civil society and media. Although there