The Lebanese financial crisis, driven by fiscal mismanagement and central bank interventions, has resulted in market distortions and multiple exchange rates, worsening economic disparities.
Jonathan Cole
Jonathan Cole is a Non-Resident Fellow at Badil | The Alternative Policy Institute and an Investigative Journalist at The New Arab. Previously, he was a Research Analyst at the Institute and worked with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). He holds an MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Oxford and a ScotMA in Arabic and Politics from the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on the political economy of the Arab world, with a particular interest in Lebanon’s commercial banking sector and its links to the offshore financial system.
Articles by Jonathan Cole
Onwards and Upwards? The Lira’s Treacherous Route Ahead
To restore stability and credibility, the government must reform the central bank’s governance, tighten fiscal policy, and ultimately execute a carefully managed float of the lira.
Sayrafa Explained: How Lebanon’s Central Bank Quells Unrest by Subsidising Elites
“A weak and inefficient monetary tool”