In need of a new national economic strategy

Our economy is seriously underperforming. While this isn’t a surprise, it still bothers me every single day. I love our banks, but they are only part of the equation for real economic success. We need functioning capital markets, and we needed them yesterday. I love our central bank, but it simply cannot continue being the country’s only economic agent. We need a robust and well-planned fiscal policy, and we needed it last year. The Beirut Stock Exchange is a joke. Companies with growth ambitions in Lebanon have debt as a local financing option. That’s basically it. This is absurd. We Lebanese have trading in our blood. Our financial markets – indeed, our entire economy, including capital markets – should be at the service of traders pushing our economy forward. Instead, we don’t even have laws that allow private equity and venture capital funds to be properly structured. While private sector