Mike Azar
Commentator on Lebanonโs never-ending financial crisis. International and project finance professional. UCLA and Johns Hopkins SAIS alumn.
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For Lebanon, a maritime boundary deal is better than none. But people need to understand what was agreed because it is being mischaracterized. For example: 1. The parties did *n...
Let me tell you a story about MP Faysal Karami (Tripoli). He owns/runs the Islamic Hospital, a private hospital in Tripoli that doubles as a money laundering, fraud, clientelism/vo...
1/ In the 1920's, Germany experienced hyperinflation because it had a large amount of public debt from World War 1, which its central bank covered by printing money. The central ba...
1/ The first nuclear power plant in the Arab world began commercial operations in UAE last week. Our firm acted as financial advisor to the lenders for this groundbreaking $25+bn p...
1/ Head of Budget and Finance Committee @IbrahimKanaan accuses unnamed Govt advisors/others of having purchased Credit Default Swaps (CDS) on Leb Eurobonds and then pushed for defa...
1/ BDL appears to be proposing that all official intl humanitarian aid (~$1.5bn in 2021) be channeled through BDL and given to recipients in LBP at a rate of 6,200 LBP. BDL says th...
1/ Here's how the WB loan works: WB lends MOF ~$204mn (part of the $246mn for basic income support) MOF deposits the $ at its account at BDL BDL "purchases" the $ at 1.6x3900...
1/ What's the difference between the calculations of the Govt and those of Parliament? The final draft of Parliament's calculations seems to be a State secret to which nobody has a...
Talk about "reconciling the numbers" is nonsense and a way for people to avoid taking responsibility for being unprepared. There's no disagreement on numbers but on solutions. What...
I participated in a meeting with BDL Governor Riad Salameh yesterday in which I had the opportunity to ask some of the questions that I have. Well, mainly one question, but an impo...
This is my last tweet about Eurobonds until the Govt announces its decision. We've spent the last 3+ months digging through the bond documents, learning about other countries' expe...