An accelerating descent

The failure of a government to actually govern can be overlooked, and even ignored, when a country’s economy somehow manages to independently cook up growth, as Lebanon’s has, churning out annual increases of gross domestic product in the range of 7 percent for half a decade. During these years many seemed to regard the economy’s continued subscription to miraculous performance as assured by God while the fundamentals needed to sustain this growth, such as infrastructure, were rotting beneath their feet.   Today, however, the boardrooms’ belief that Lebanon’s soaring growth is immune to the laws of gravity that apply to the rest of the world has disappeared, as first quarter results for 2011 clearly show that the country is entering an economic downturn. And now — with the fiscal forecast inclement and a government necessary to navigate the storm — it becomes painfully apparent how the intransigence of the competing political