Lebanon without a government, again

ENAR

Lebanon without a government feels remarkably similar to Lebanon with a government. The political establishment in this country is so fickle and dysfunctional that the cogs and levers that actually drive this fragile nation grind along regardless of the ineptitude and cynical shenanigans of those voted into office. This begs the question, how much will the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati affect the wider economy? The country’s financial health had been declining for some time prior to Mikati coming to office in June 2011, and was in a worse position as he made his dash for the exit last Friday. The economy grew a paltry 0.8 percent in 2012, down from 1.8 percent in 2011; Despite sluggish activity, inflation belligerently persists at around 10 percent; foreign direct investment dropped more than two thirds in 2012, and a recent study by the American University of Beirut and Byblos Bank found