Afghanistan: Hardship Grows as Economy Nears Collapse | DW News Asia

Sep 28, 2021 – Afghanistan heads closer to economic collapse, with the banks limiting withdrawals, inflation high, and unemployment growing. 03:27 The Taliban has also announced the reinstatement of executions and amputations. 11:01 A roundup of other major developments from the country.

Lebanon Faces Dire Crisis after the Elite Plundered the State for Decades, Exacerbating Inequality

Jul 9, 2021 • Lebanon is days away from a “social explosion,” according to the country’s prime minister, amid what the World Bank has described as one of the worst economic depressions in modern history. The country’s currency has lost more than 90% of its value, unemployment has skyrocketed, and fuel prices have soared. Most homes and businesses, and even hospitals, only have power for a few hours each day, and pharmacies are running low on medicine. The U.N. has warned over three-quarters of households in Lebanon do not have enough food or money to buy food. Lebanon is also facing a massive political crisis following the devastating explosion at the Port of Beirut last August, which killed over 200 people, injured 7,000 and left more than a quarter-million Beirut residents unhoused. Nisreen Salti, an economics professor at the American University of Beirut, says “the entire system crumbled” in Lebanon due to decades of structural inequality. “The business and political class that benefited from the system was able to plunder the economy for 20-odd years,” Salti says. We also speak with Middle East scholar Ziad Abu-Rish of Bard College. He says the economic crisis and the port explosion, for which there have been no major prosecutions, both reveal the impunity with which the country’s elites operate. “Part of the problem is the total lack of accountability,” Abu-Rish says.

Lebanon Economic Crisis among World's Worst in 150 years | DW News

Jun 28, 2021 • Inflation has driven Lebanon's currency to historically low values in recent weeks. The crash of the Lebanese pound is playing its part in the country’s grave economic crisis, which has left half the population living below the poverty line.

Fire and fury have hit the streets of Beirut. Lebanon is descending fast into an economic crisis that the World Bank says will likely rank among the world's worst of the last 150 years. Where some streets witness protests, others host long lines of cars queuing for a share of Lebanon's insufficient supply of gasoline.

Shortages are pushing up the costs of many essentials. The price of subsidized bread has been hiked five times this year alone. Citizens are also getting much less for their money because of record inflation.

The Lebanese pound has been trading at an all-time high on the black market - at over 10 times its official rate against the US dollar.

The crisis is largely the result of three decades of financial mismanagement by successive governments, following Lebanon's civil war. But it's been made even worse by a global pandemic, and the billions of dollars of damage caused by last year's deadly blast in Beirut port.


‘This is the end of times’: Lebanon struggles to find political path through its crisis »

Lebanon in Free-fall: 'For Me, the Country Now Is a Large Jail'

Lebanon is undergoing financial and economic collapse.

The country's currency has lost around 85% of its value and the majority of the population could soon face acute poverty.

The BBC met one nurse who explains what the disintegration of the country means to him

The Coming Collapse of the American Economic System with Richard Wolff

Economist Richard Wolff discusses the coming economic collapse of the United States of America with journalist Chris Hedges.

The Crash Is Coming! The Coming Collapse Of The American Economy - Economic Collapse News

New Great Depression 2014. Prepare for an Economic Collapse