Are We Finally Looking At #Lebanon’s #debt #default?

Thinking the unthinkable: Lebanon's sovereign debt default?

Matein Khalid

January 02, 2020

The unthinkable has finally happened in a secretive central bank's digital ledger in the heart of Beirut. The rating agency Fitch predicts imminent default on Lebanon's sovereign debt, at $88bn, a colossal 185% of GDP, making the once "Paris of the Middle East, the fabled reve d'Orient (dream of the East) a Levantine Argentina. While central bank data often lies in the emerging markets, Fitch's arithmetic of doom is irrefutable. Fitch estimates that the Banque du Liban, run by an ex-Merrill Lynch broker Riad Salameh as governor since 1993, owes $67 billion dollars to Lebanese banks in borrowings (liabilities) but has only $28 billion in net foreign exchange reserves.

Salameh's high stakes juggling act of borrowing money at exorbitant rates from Lebanese banks, flush with funds from a diaspora that extends from the Swiss Alps to São Paulo, from the diamond mines of West Africa to the glass towers of Dubai's DIFC Gate Village, to meet the state's $5 billion annual debt service obligations, maintain the Lebanese pound currency peg to King dollar, finance imports for a population whose elite defines la dolce vita on the East Med and bankroll a bloated, warlord/sectarian fissured public finance payroll, is now over.

Optically, Lebanon boasts $150 billion in banking deposits, three times its GDP, a ratio exceeded only by the banking systems of Hong Kong and Luxembourg. Yet this banking data is a cruel illusion, a hoax perpetuated on the hapless savers of Lebanon and its vast global diaspora. Lebanese banks have recklessly invested 50% of their assets in Lebanese government's Treasury bills, de facto post dated cheques/IOU's on a bankrupt bank. 

Where did these untold billions in debt vanish? 

Read the rest here: https://www.ameinfo.com/industry/finance/thinking-the-unthinkable-lebanons-sovereign-debt-default

MasterFeeds

@MasterFeed

#SocialMedia being used to manipulate public opinion in more than 70 countries says New report from Oxford Internet Institute

"social networking technologies – algorithms, automation and big data – vastly changes the scale, scope, and precision of how [mis]information is transmitted in the digital age."

• Organized social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017
•  70 countries using computational propaganda to manipulate public opinion.
• In 45 democracies, politicians and political parties have used computational propaganda tools by amassing fake followers or spreading manipulated media to garner voter support.
• In 26 authoritarian states, government entities have used computational propaganda as a tool of information control to suppress public opinion and press freedom, discredit criticism and oppositional voices, and drown out political dissent.
• Foreign influence operations, primarily over Facebook and Twitter, have been attributed to cyber troop activities in seven countries: China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

"The manipulation of public opinion over social media remains a critical threat to democracy, as computational propaganda becomes a pervasive part of everyday life. Government agencies and political parties around the world are using social media to spread disinformation and other forms of manipulated media. Although propaganda has always been a part of politics, the wide-ranging scope of these campaigns raises critical concerns for modern democracy."

Read the excerpt for the report, 'The Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation', here: https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/news/releases/use-of-social-media-to-manipulate-public-opinion-now-a-global-problem-says-new-report/

Download the Full Report here.

The #UN, with special mention to @UN_HRC #HumanRights Council, has outdone itself this year. Thanks @UNWatch

From electing #Mugabe as Goodwill Ambassador @WHO and #Erdogan to the @UNESCO Board, to naming #SaudiArabia to its #Women's Rights Commission ...

The #UN, with special mention to the @UN_HRC #HumanRights Council, has outdone itself this year...

The Top 10 Most Evil U.N. Actions of 2017 @UNWatch 

UN Watch Briefing Latest from the United Nations  December 25, 2017 The Top 10 Most Evil U.N. Actions of 2017 10. Denied Venezuelan Hunger: In the first-ever U.N. visit to Venezuela, Alfred de Zayas, the U.N. Human Rights Council's Cuban-backed "Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order," posted propaganda photos to deny mass hunger caused by the regime's failed policies. After UN Watch exposed the sick lie—in truth, Venezuelan hospitals are filled with starving children—the U.N. official was pressured into deleting his blog post and tweet. 9. Foxes to Guard the Chickens: The U.N. elected Qatar (slave labor), Pakistan (death row for Christian 'blasphemers'), Democratic Republic of Congo (mass rape as weapon of war), Afghanistan (abuse of women) and Angola (corrupt & oppressive regime) to the 47-nation Human Rights Council, for 3-year terms beginning in January 2018. Existing members already include Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba and Venezuela. UN Watch led the protest with a major report and social media campaign, cited in AP, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Deutsche Welle & Spain's EFE. 8. Mugabe as Goodwill Ambassador: In October, the U.N.'s World Health Organization named Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe a "goodwill ambassador."