Foreign Affairs: “The Ponzi Scheme That Broke Lebanon”

I have a new article at Foreign Affairs today, on the United States' newfound commitment to fighting corruption in Lebanon:

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/lebanon/2022-04-18/ponzi-scheme-broke-lebanon

The Biden administration has declared combating corruption a national security priority. Lebanon is somewhere the administration's commitment to fighting corruption really matters – corruption is central to Lebanon's economic collapse, and any effort at national rescue, to be successful, will require steps to root out corruption.

Unfortunately, though, the United States faces a major credibility problem on corruption in Lebanon. If Biden administration officials want to demonstrate they're really serious about fighting corruption in Lebanon, they'll have to do more. And they'll need to fix the United States' seeming blind spot on Lebanon's grandest corruption: its central bank's disastrous "Ponzi scheme," and, more generally, the incestuous relationship between Lebanon's political and financial elites that ultimately bankrupted the country.