The Lebanese pound is in freefall. While officially the government pegs it at 1,500 to the U.S. dollar, the black market rate now approaches ten times that. Lebanese have always understood the extent to which their elites diverted or stole the billions of dollars the international community and World Bank provided their government, but the decline in their national currency now challenges daily life in a way unseen since the 1975-1992 civil war. Two weeks ago, fistfights erupted at supermarkets in Nabitiyeh, a southern Lebanese town that is in the Hezbollah heartland. A week ago, there were near-riots at two different locations of Rammal, a Hezbollah-owned supermarket chain, in the Dahieh, Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold, as shoppers fought over subsidized food.
