It really bothers me when people say things they don’t actually understand. “The economy is dead.” I’ve heard it over and over the past few years. Growth is low, fine, but it’s not completely absent. Let’s remember Economics 101. If a manaoushe shop sells 1,000 manaeesh in September and then sells 1,020 in October, that’s 2 percent growth. Granted, those extra 20 manaeesh won’t buy our shopowner a villa, but that shop owner is still selling more than 1,000 manaeesh. He’s not moving to the poorhouse. There was an external shock to our economy when unrest in Syria broke out in 2011, quickly evolving into a full-blown civil war. We needed to adjust. Tourists from the Gulf were no longer coming, nor were they buying 500-square-meter luxury apartments in Beirut. Today, hotels outside the capital are near fully booked with locals discovering their own country, and developers are building housing
My dear Yasser, I hear you, though maybe not clearly enough. It may be the age.But, let’s remain serious.The 20 extra manouche are certainly welcome, PROVIDED they are used to feed the hungry stomachs that need them. What if half of the 1,020 mankouche were subtilized by a band of crooks before the hungry citizens could get hold of them? This is exactly what is happening in Lebanon when, at the present time, half the Lebanese Budget is diverted to (1) the holders of the public debt bonds (2) to reward the buyers of real estate properties by allowing them to create fictitious limited companies in order to avoid paying the 6% real estate registration fees and (3) All sorts of shenanigans and dilapidations like the waste treatment combines or EDL’s accounts. So, I grant you, there is a certain growth after all, but WHO nenefits from it? Ca c’est le fin mot de l’ histoire!!!!!!!
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My dear Yasser, I hear you, though maybe not clearly enough. It may be the age.But, let’s remain serious.The 20 extra manouche are certainly welcome, PROVIDED they are used to feed the hungry stomachs that need them. What if half of the 1,020 mankouche were subtilized by a band of crooks before the hungry citizens could get hold of them? This is exactly what is happening in Lebanon when, at the present time, half the Lebanese Budget is diverted to (1) the holders of the public debt bonds (2) to reward the buyers of real estate properties by allowing them to create fictitious limited companies in order to avoid paying the 6% real estate registration fees and (3) All sorts of shenanigans and dilapidations like the waste treatment combines or EDL’s accounts. So, I grant you, there is a certain growth after all, but WHO nenefits from it? Ca c’est le fin mot de l’ histoire!!!!!!!
Comments are closed.