As a new government finds its feet, Executive assesses its credentials and looks back at the post-war economic policies and asks if there ever were any

Memories are short. Twelve years on, the man the people had brought down was invited to head a new government. For those who remember the burning tires and momentary anarchy, there was an uneasy, not to mention unwelcome, sense of déjà vu. It is also ironic that his path to power was, last summer, paved with similar scenes of violent public demonstrations that prompted his demise 12 years earlier. That it should happen in the southern suburbs of Beirut is also not surprising. In fact, it is amazing that the rioting of last summer did not take place earlier. The area, according to social economists, has one of the highest population density rates in the Arab world. The percentage of youths per household is highest in the country. The supply of labor is the highest and local demand the lowest. Elsewhere in Lebanon, the situation isn’t much better. A desk