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L’accord de Paris
The recent Paris Agreement is a departure in form and substance from previous climate change accords; it calls for a bottom-up approach to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Unlike the 1997 Kyoto Protocol...
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Shark hunt
Playtime is over. Nearly one year after calling for unregulated lenders to step out of the shadows, Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, imposed new restrictions and reporting requirements on...
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Toward ethical lending
On the list of what separates humans from our primitive ancestors, one activity usually gets neglected: lending with interest. Finance seems embedded in our DNA. We have debt records that date back...
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The ABCs of the 123s
Finance is a complicated topic to understand. The jargon and math don’t help. Top employees of Lebanese lending institutions have admitted to Executive that even some bankers cannot define an annual...
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Worse than weapons
The war years in Lebanon were particularly ugly near the end. I was 16 years old when the bottom fell out from under the lira, and the currency collapse changed everything. People lost their jobs....
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Lebanon’s Captagon boom
The sun had not quite risen one cold January morning in east Lebanon as an army patrol set out to arrest individuals suspected for the murders of Sobhi and Nadimeh Fakhri in November 2014. What was to...
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Smart money talks
It had to be one of Lebanon’s top resolutions for 2016 when Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh pledged at the BDL Accelerate event in December to see to the establishment of an electronic stock...
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Leader in ethics, leader in managing wealth
Absolute discretion; the strength of character that engenders trust; the emotional intelligence that enables one to gauge a client’s needs, wants and insecurities; and a keen financial mind. Such are...
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Crash course on markets
It was as if the in-laws had decided on New Year’s Eve that it would be fun to come for an unannounced visit. Volatility. It is part of the family experience in any investment strategy and, like the...
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Great potential in need of an edge
“Why is there so much more research done on baldness than on malaria? Because rich people go bald, and they don’t die of malaria.” William H. Gates III There were times when homegrown private banking...
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Luck of the winners
When La Libanaise des Jeux, the country’s sole concessionaire of lotteries and scratch-card games, introduced a new game last month, it was sheer coincidence that the launch event was held within five...
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Globalization of resettlement
One might look at the change in number of registered Syrian refugees in Lebanon during 2015 and incorrectly assume Syria’s civil war is on the wane. Since the Office of the UN High Commissioner for...
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Growth amid the thorns
Retailers in Lebanon have been faced with challenging circumstances for the past four years. Regional turmoil that began with the war in Syria has been pushing tourist numbers down, and the remaining...
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Toasting a good year
Despite some difficulties attributed to the region’s unstable geopolitical situation in 2015, the major Lebanese global spirits distributors nonetheless had cause to celebrate a generally successful...
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Advertising alcohol: the business of selling responsibly
Just like all commodities, alcohol revenues are significantly impacted by successful branding and marketing campaigns. When well-crafted advertisements are relatable to consumers, these promotions...
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Rehabilitation first
The opening crawl of the movie “Reefer Madness” served as a morality tale to parents of the Silent Generation: “…the new drug menace is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers....
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Crime and punishment
Not much is known about Captagon prevalence in Lebanon. Anecdotal testimony regarding court cases and rehabilitation treatments suggest that use is low but rising. The prevailing explanation for this...
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Talent takes the stage
The entrepreneurship ecosystem is evolving and becoming more ‘startup friendly’, hosting networking events every other week and improving the access youthful entrepreneurs have to information. Little...
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Bireme ad(ventures)
Startup ecosystems in the United States continue to be major magnets for young Lebanese companies that want to benefit from valuations that the local market seems unlikely to generate. Executive...
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Questioning the messenger
“Just five minutes,” the elderly man tells his waiting wife. He’s busy securing their financial future, he explains. The advertisement by al-Lebananiyeh al-Arabieh lil Tasleef (LAT), a loan company,...
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