Reading Time: < 1 minute As the Lebanese crisis of insufficient politics, imperiled economy, impaired liquidity, and quarrelsome financial behaviors is limping toward its next pain point, the topics of banking and financial restructuring are taking center stage. The judicial and organizational implications for the banking industry are vital for the future of Lebanon’s economy. As always in our June…
The Lebanese people have the right to know and the capacity to contribute to their economic rescue
Reading Time: 7 minutes Three men in suits, with the carefully groomed looks of advanced-middle-age males, stand on Beirut’s landmark cliff and contemplate the mysteries of the sea that looms some 150 feet below them. One is a reputed banking economist, one a famous government technocrat, and one, with a much cheaper suit, the driver/bodyguard that brought them to…
Lebanon needs a national strategy for education
Reading Time: 4 minutes The academic year 2019-2020 has been the most dysfunctional one Lebanon has experienced in recent memory. It has also highlighted discrepancies in the quality of education that high-income families have access to versus that which low income families can afford. This inequality needs to be addressed and rectified if Lebanon is to place its hope…
In pictures: Protests and clashes in Downtown Beirut
Reading Time: 2 minutes On June 6, thousands of protesters gathered in Downtown Beirut starting at 3 p.m. in the largest protest since the COVID-19 lockdown went into force. Demonstrators were protesting the impacts of the ongoing economic and coronavirus crises that have seen the value of the local currency plummet. Initial peaceful protests soon became heated as supporters…
Executive Magazine and FNF MENA sign memorandum of understanding
Reading Time: 2 minutes Comprehensive efforts for the development and advocacy for economic reforms in the MENA region are being driven by a first-of-its-kind cooperation between Executive Magazine and the Regional Office Middle East and North Africa of Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF MENA). On May 21, Executive Magazine and FNF MENA agreed to launch their cooperation by…
Pandemic brings needed media self-reflection
Reading Time: 4 minutes What is in a magazine? From the perspective of us who write and edit the content of Executive, it is a striving for truth, meaning a constant quest and never-ending chase for an elusive public good of the first order. In times of crisis, this striving for truth is often the most valuable contribution that…
Executive Magazine’s April/May issue
Reading Time: 2 minutes The lockdown in Lebanon has been extended for a fourth time, till May 24. Easing measures are seeing those who can slowly reopen businesses and try to get back to work. But protests have also sprung anew. The reality is for many, there was no work before the lockdown began, and there will be none…
A letter to our readers
Reading Time: 2 minutes To our readers, The world is living through unprecedented times, and for many of us, uncertainty and anxiety are running high as the disruption to our day-to-day lives is acute. The coronavirus outbreak is one of the greatest challenges that we face as a global community. The threat of the virus to our health, to…
Facing the economic crisis with productive realism
Reading Time: 3 minutes It plainly is depressing. Practically every story in this issue of Executive starts—if not with the scary ad-hoc topic of the coronavirus—but with a reference to the dire economic straits that Lebanon is in. And even before the March issue went to the newsstands, the mood among some of our online readers seemed to be…
Lebanon faces growing unemployment
Reading Time: 5 minutes The last study on unemployment in Lebanon—conducted by Lebanon’s Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) in partnership with the International Labor Organization in 2018- 2019—revealed a general unemployment rate of 11.4 percent, reaching as high as 23.3 percent for youth. In light of the past few months, there can be no doubt that these percentages have…