Banking on the State Quotes

“The bank’s somewhat innovative, yet cumbersome, administrative arrangement did not translate into a fundamental restructuring of its mandate as an agent of economic development. If anything, the BDL’s monetary policy in relation to the question of economic development was more conservative than that of its predecessor, the BSL, and equally less so than the majority of the sister banks that were being established at the time across the Arab world.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“Over time, the capital share and political clout of BSL rivals grew exponentially and placed the entire banking sector on a path to securing the dominance of this sector in Lebanon’s economy. The rapid rise and longevity of banker power had less to do with market forces or entrepreneurial acumen than with the legislative and lobbying activities led by Raymond and Pierre Eddé.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“BSL policies payed off for its stockholders.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“In addition to depriving the bourse from trading in government bonds, the BSL effectively employed its newly consecrated powers of its 1924 charter to dictate the path of economic development, or lack thereof, throughout the interwar period.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“but additional decrees had to be issued prescribing grace periods and exchange rates for settling debts contracted prior to decree no. 129 in other currencies. The complexity of the currency system made it unintelligible to the majority of the population. With multiple, unstable exchange rates and market unit pricing, merchants were no longer able to properly assess their financial standing based on registered prices. It took more than ordinary bookkeeping skills to keep proper tabs on costs, revenue, and net profit.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“The new financial regulatory regime installed in the wake of the Intra crisis fortified the bankers’ stranglehold on the local economy.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“the Intra crisis pushed them to accept further structural adjustment to suit international banking practices without fully jeopardizing their privileged position locally.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon

“British and French monetary officials often resisted the creation of national central banks. Their nations having lost military and political influence, they suggested reforming existing currency boards that kept local currencies tied to the franc or the pound sterling. By contrast, unorthodox U.S. money doctors like the Federal Reserve Bank’s Robert Triffin encouraged and aided the creation of national central banks. Triffin understood the necessity of supporting economic nationalism that espoused a strong central bank in former European colonies in order to reorient their economies away from the colonizing metropole—and communist alternatives—and towards the international market.”
― Hicham Safieddine, Banking on the State: The Financial Foundations of Lebanon