The Beiruter

Globalization is not retreating, but geopolitical risk is redirecting trade and investment across a wider range of countries, creating new opportunities for those able to connect the world’s largest markets.

European central banks are reconsidering where they store their gold as geopolitical tensions force governments to weigh easy access to their reserves against greater control over national wealth.

China’s revised National Defense Mobilization Law aims to shorten the transition from peacetime to a wartime economy by preparing and testing how civilian resources could be converted into military capacity before a conflict begins.

Lebanon’s Social Security Fund begins major reforms to restore benefits, introduce pensions, improve governance, and modernize social protection systems.

Lebanon’s 2026 tourism season suffered from war, declining arrivals and weaker spending, leaving businesses with mounting losses and recovery dependent on restored stability and confidence.

France’s €135 million in support to Lebanon in 2025 targeted essential services, highlighting the challenge of turning international aid into lasting economic recovery.

From wartime savings to everyday payments, Lebanon’s relationship with the dollar has lasted for decades. This article reveals how instability, banking crises, and loss of trust turned the US currency from a safety net into a permanent part of Lebanese life.

Lebanon’s draft Financial Gap Law promises to repay depositors in full, but the market, a hostage negotiation and the central bank’s own balance sheet have already priced the same claim between 12 and 18 percent, and at those rates the promise is worth a fifth of its face value.

Southern Lebanon’s losses go beyond $1.3 billion in physical damage, as war has disrupted businesses, agriculture, jobs and investment, making economic recovery dependent on stability, reconstruction and rebuilding trust.

Banks are experimenting with tokenized deposits that could make money faster and easier to transfer, but the same technology could challenge the stability of deposits that banks rely on to fund lending.

Lebanon’s long-awaited pension reform promises a lifetime retirement income for workers, but its success depends on implementing 14 pending decrees, building the system’s institutions, and ensuring the state can turn the reform from a legal text into real social protection.

As Lebanon’s back-to-school costs soar, families face thousands of dollars in supplies, transportation and tuition while teachers remain underpaid and schools struggle to collect fees.

AI may reshape or replace millions of jobs, but growing global labor shortages suggest it could also help fill skills gaps, create new roles and transform how humans work.

Renewed conflict has derailed Lebanon’s fragile economic recovery, with the World Bank warning of recession, rising inflation, mounting reconstruction costs, and urgent reforms.

From multimillion-dollar pay packages to corporate deals that deliver entire research teams, competition for elite AI talent is beginning to resemble the transfer market of professional sports.

Backed by a $150 million World Bank project, Lebanon is preparing to modernize its public administration through digital services, secure infrastructure, electronic signatures, digital identity and more connected government systems.

Lebanon’s labor market crisis is deepened by weak investment, economic contraction, and the absence of regular unemployment data needed to understand job losses and design effective policies.

The price of a cup of coffee can reveal how weather, global supply, shipping disruptions, energy costs, inflation, and domestic policies travel across the world before reaching consumers.

The Housing Bank has resumed housing lending, offering renewed opportunities for affordable homeownership through a sustainable and long-term financing strategy.

The veil of ignorance offers a powerful way to examine how fair institutions, equal opportunities, and strong governance can shape economic prosperity and determine whether circumstances at birth define a person’s future.

Parliament legalized cannabis cultivation in 2020. Six years later, Lebanon has not issued a single cultivation license. The regulatory framework is reportedly close to completion, but the sector remains blocked by an implementation failure that has left farmers outside the law and the promised industry on paper.

Productivity growth has slowed sharply across advanced economies, but widening gaps among countries show that investment, technology adoption and the ability to put capital and workers to productive use can determine how much growth is ultimately lost.

Lebanon’s failing electricity system places an unequal burden on households, as wealthier families use solar and backup power to escape shortages while poorer households consume less electricity and leave more of their basic energy needs unmet.