Signs of a social explosion: widespread protests after the dollar broke the 10,000 lira barrier

The dollar became ten thousand pounds … “and soared.” The electricity was cut off and the rate for the generators went up. Patients, if they do not die due to difficulty in obtaining medical bills, can be overwhelmed by the inability of hospitals to operate ventilators under severe rationing. That was what was missing. That the state cut off the oxygen to the people. No one is safe from premeditated slaughter, after the authority left the decision in the hands of the wheat, gasoline, medicine and food cartels, betting that the people obeyed and surrendered to an inevitable reality. But what happened on October 17, 2019, can be repeated this year, after the country fell into free fall. And with the continuation of the authority’s policy of ignoring the collapse, the street once again moved through the areas of Beirut to the north and south, with a scene that recalled the start of the uprising on October 17, 2019. A scene That may indicate the imminence of a social explosion.

The governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, is in charge of implementing a “decision” to lead the country to collapse. Salameh bears direct responsibility for the collapse of the exchange rate, not only by allowing banks to extract hard currency from the market, but also by resorting to measures that have contributed to increasing pressure on the exchange rate. The most prominent of these measures is the continuation of the adoption of what he calls the “platform price”, that is, 3,900 pounds per dollar, specifically designed to give depositors their dollars deposited in banks, in Lebanese pounds. The Banque du Liban returns a deposit to commercial banks who return it to its owners. They want to “reduce the losses” they suffered as a result of the seizure of their dollars and the collapse of the exchange rate, so they turn to the market to buy dollars. This occurs at a time when banks are still raising the price of the dollar, despite the expiration of the term set for them in basic circular No. 154, especially with regard to the formation of accounts abroad with a value of 3 percent. of the funds deposited with them in dollars. One of the largest Lebanese banks yesterday began to ask for huge sums, in cash dollars, from the black market, in exchange for bank checks. The bank reduced the price of the check to 27.47 percent of its value (compared to $ 274,700 in cash, the bank writes a check for $ 1 million). The cash to be exchanged for checks will be cashed in the market. This increases the demand for the dollar and leads to a further collapse of the pound.

Some bank owners are making fictitious personal gains by speculating on the lira.

Financial sector workers also speak of bank owners’ involvement in checking checks to secure personal benefits, not benefits exclusively for banks. They make billions, buy checks for virtual dollars (£ 3,000 for a dollar), then sell checks for 3,900 pounds to the dollar, recording a net profit of 900 pounds to the dollar, which they use to buy cash (real) dollars on the market. . Sources confirm that several bank owners make a profit of at least $ 100,000 in cash every day. Speculative operations, through which they accumulate fantastic profits, which they can transfer abroad on the basis that they are “fresh dollars” without restrictions. These accumulated riches at the expense of the rest of society (each further collapse of the sterling exchange rate is reflected in price inflation, which means a direct tax paid by the general population, dumped into the pockets of speculators , not in the public treasury), which will add to the money that had previously been smuggled abroad, when it appeared have signs of collapse in recent years.
On the other hand, the political forces that constitute the hippocampus’s security shield do not exclusively refuse to pressure it to change its actions, but rather toughen political protection measures for it at the height of the collapse, the last of which it is the pressure on the government by a group of representatives on the subject of criminal scrutiny, including two from the “Bloque Desarrollo y Liberación” »(See page 4).
As for the government line, the situation is not much better. The Prime Minister-designate, Saad Hariri, is preparing to undertake a tour abroad, as a continuation of previous visits, while the disagreement remains great between him and the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, as both remain in their terms. And while the information was marketed that Hariri “in his councils seemed more flexible and that he asked for urgency to form a government, but with an exit that would not show it broken”, informed political circles denied it, confirming that “Prime Minister Hariri is not less stubborn than Aoun and Minister Gebran Bassil and that he is not in the process of retiring, “and noted that” there is nothing new in this file and there are no communications on which to rely. “
With the exclusion of the withdrawal of the parties in conflict from their convictions, the interim government renounces its role to confront the crisis, since the ministerial committee that met a few days ago failed to find a clear mechanism of “rationalization” of support. , especially since Prime Minister Hassan Diab was decisive that he would not go to the option of canceling the Support, especially since the repercussions of this option will be catastrophic because it will lead to an insanely high price of fuel, medicine and food, and this it means that the sums that can be allocated to support the poorest families will not be enough to ensure the minimum vital goods.

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