Banking on the State : The Financial Foundations of Lebanon / Hicham Safieddine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Safieddine, Hicham, Author.

Series:

Stanford studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies and cultures.

Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Banks and banking, Central--Lebanon--History.

Banks and banking, Central.

Monetary policy--Lebanon--History.

Monetary policy.

Lebanon--Colonial influence.

Lebanon.

Maṣrif Lubnān--History.

Maṣrif Lubnān.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 pages).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, CA : Stanford University Press, [2020]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

In 1943, Lebanon gained its formal political independence from France; only after two more decades did the country finally establish a national central bank. Inaugurated on April 1, 1964, the Banque du Liban (BDL) was billed by Lebanese authorities as the nation's primary symbol of economic sovereignty and as the last step towards full independence. In the local press, it was described as a means of projecting state power and enhancing national pride. Yet the history of its founding—stretching from its Ottoman origins in mid-nineteenth century up until the mid-twentieth—tells a different, more complex story. Banking on the State reveals how the financial foundations of Lebanon were shaped by the history of the standardization of economic practices and financial regimes within the decolonizing world. The system of central banking that emerged was the product of a complex interaction of war, economic policies, international financial regimes, post-colonial state-building, global currents of technocratic knowledge, and private business interests. It served rather than challenged the interests of an oligarchy of local bankers. As Hicham Safieddine shows, the set of arrangements that governed the central bank thus was dictated by dynamics of political power and financial profit more than market forces, national interest or economic sovereignty.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction: Illusions of Financial Independence

1. Colonial Finance: The Long Monetary Mandate

2. Central Bank Reform: Ideas and Institutions

3. Barons of Banking: The Untouchables

4. Banque du Liban: A Façade of Economic Sovereignty

5. Suits and Shadows: The Intra Affair

6. Financial Regime Change: The Last Refuge of Laissez-faire

Conclusion: Sovereign Debt, Sovereign Banks

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

1-5036-0968-5

OCLC:

1178768966