Why Hezbollah Is Rich and Lebanon Is Poor
September 4th, 2024
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, an article on Lebanon and what – as the country’s economy is in free fall – Hezbollah is thriving: Lebanon and Israel have recently been at the precipice of war, but predictions of a full escalation have been false alarms. What has not been a false alarm, however, has been the […]
Read more »Hezbollah’s Shadow Bank and Lebanon’s Disaster Capitalism
August 27th, 2024
Courtesy of Adam Tooze, commentary on Lebanon’s economic crisis: As the world weighs the horrifying scenario of a “big war” in the Middle East and the likely impact on the world economy, starting with the oil price, spare a thought for the people in the eye of the storm. Think particularly of the millions in […]
Read more »The Phoenician Problem: Lebanon’s Tourism Boom
August 29th, 2023
Via The Economist, a look at Lebanon’s tourism boom: It could be any luxury hotspot on the Mediterranean. The four-hour flight from Dubai, the region’s financial hub, may cost $1,000 each way. Holidaymakers fork out over $450 for hotel rooms, $100 for plates of grilled fish. Day-passes to beach clubs can cost 25% of the […]
Read more »How Lebanon Can Unlock Its Oil and Gas Wealth
February 14th, 2023
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, an article on a new maritime deal with Israel could be an economic lifeline for Lebanon—if the government in Beirut can get its act together: On Oct. 27, 2022, Israel and Lebanon signed a breakthrough agreement establishing a permanent maritime boundary between them in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. The two countries have technically been […]
Read more »Don’t Let Politics Kill the Lebanon-Israel Gas Deal
October 7th, 2022
Via Foreign Policy, an article on a U.S.-brokered maritime border agreement that could have profound effects on the entire Middle East: Last month, we visited a Hezbollah tunnel on the Israeli-Lebanese border as part of a bipartisan group of Middle East experts. Dug almost a football field deep—with twisting staircases, advanced lighting, and oxygen cables—the tunnel’s […]
Read more »Dropped Call: Massive Hike In Lebanon’s Cell Service Fees
September 5th, 2022
Courtesy of The Washington Post, a report on the impact that a massive hike in cell service fees has had upon Lebanon’s poor: Shopping for grapes at Beirut’s wholesale market to resell from her produce cart, an exhausted Rawaa Ghosn described how another layer of her increasingly tenuous life was peeled away after she had […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.