Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
[This article was originally published in An-Nahar September 22, 2019] It’s pretty clear that we’re now in an urgent race, like being on a treadmill, whose speed keeps accelerating, but has no off-switch. No matter how tough and fit you are, eventually you’ll have to stop running … unlike the treadmill, which keeps going. You can [...]
Dan Azzi
[This article was first published in An-Nahar in July 2019] I know what you’re thinking — my editor missed a typo and the title should be “Devaluation of the Lebanese Lira.” It’s pretty clear, with the balance of payment (BoP) deficit (binging on imports, i.e. US dollars leaking outside the country month after month); that we’re heading [...]
Dan Azzi
[This article was originally published in An-Nahar on March 24, 2019 and created a media frenzy such as this report attacking me] Adventures in Forensic Accounting: Last Monday I received an excel spreadsheet from MJ, a bright young man, a couple of years out of college, whom I met last year at a controversial lecture at AUB (LINK HERE). [...]
Dan Azzi
[This article was published in An-Nahar 24 February, 2019] When I worked on Wall Street a few years ago, I could sense that something was wrong in our compensation mechanism. We got huge bonuses if things went well that year, but the downside was always limited. Take a trader who committed firm capital, a bet, if you will, on a certain [...]
Dan Azzi
(First published in An-Nahar October 22, 2018) “Remember, if you believe it, it’s not a lie.” George Costanza Most people don’t know that a tomato is actually a fruit not a vegetable. It took my attending a Botany course at AUB for me to learn this very useful tidbit of information, which comes in handy when I’m short cash and need to [...]
Dan Azzi
(First published in An-Nahar Oct 13, 2018) I was a kid in a small town, Damour, and I’d hear about this terrible disease, when people would make the sign of the cross, whispering solemnly, “Flen has the disease whose name cannot be uttered. May Allah deliver us from it!” In fact, several people, with the complicity of the attending [...]
Dan Azzi
(Originally published in An-Nahar October 2018) Most so-called local economic reports read more like (bad) poetry, rather than providing actionable intelligence. One such report on real estate, from a few years ago, said: [...]
Dan Azzi
(Originally published in An-Nahar September 2018) When Judgment Day for our country arrives, and it’s very close, the results will be cataclysmic and painful, but we should stand ready to exploit this and unleash Schumpeter’s Creative Destruction process. BEIRUT: Last week, a state of apprehension proliferated in the economic and banking [...]
Dan Azzi
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