VincentKeyboard wrote
So go broke. No one forced you to assign prices in USD.
Let's say I have a company called Haddad Chicken. I make chicken products. If I insist on distributing them at dollar prices, eventually no one will afford to buy my products. Sure I can lose sales profit at LBP but it's not the end of the world.
And for your information, this is exactly how this situation was fixed 30 years ago. They soft-banned trading in US dollars and the economy became great. By the mid 90s, people would stalk you to offer you jobs.
When I was 17, I was offered a chance to manage a chain of coffee shops. I said no because I chose to go to university instead. You could find a job at 11PM on a Sunday evening back then.
Your explanation is accurate according to text books but does not apply to Lebanon's real life situation.
But my ideas are exactly what fixed this issue the last time it happened.
We need to separate the dollar from the LBP and stop assigning prices by the dollar. Even at large losses to companies, it needs to happen. They put themselves in this situation by choosing to trade locally by USD. No one forced them to do so and they are not suffering from it.
My statement is the only verified-to-work solution.
There is no excuse for greed and no excuse for Lebanon not to be manufacturing many things and setting prices that are independent of the US dollar.
Its not about losing sales profit, it is about going bankrupt, because you sell literally deeply below cost of product.
In case if i am "haddad chicken" i will rethink my strategy, and either i find way to convert my chickens to something more long-term storable and wait, or i will just sell stock, fire all employees and close until better times.
And most likely, i will sell remaining produce as export with some profit losses, but much less losses than if i sell it inside and move my business to another country.
It was not fixed before, it was patched ugly way, and eventually it was expected to hit even harder. And it did, now.
Lebanon "real life situation" and "lebanon special recipe solutions" is illusion many people have, they think regular laws doesn't apply to them here, while in reality, when they think they fixed some problem "yalla yalla Lebanese way", it turns out just temporary luck and same temporary hack with consequences.
This particular "magic" that lasted for 20 years is simple.
Whole Lebanon was burning money that supposed to be deposits of other people (mostly expats, who worked hard outside to earn them) .
That beautiful life that everyone had was at the expense of others. Now the one who unwittingly credited Lebanon is very angry, their money is gone and they need them more than ever.
Lebanon is too small country to produce domestically "near independent from dollar" something more serious than some fruits and vegetables. And even for this, in order to fight new plant diseases, pests and increase the yield - it is necessary to import technologies, chemicals and other things.
Sure, alternatively, you can raise chickens on the balcony and some hydroponics/veggies. But this is more about personal consumption, this will not be an export or any kind of competitive product, you even unlikely will fully sustain your own family needs on such scale. Still, it can improve personal situation with very real looming famine.
So, what are you going to produce that doesnt depend on import?
A strategy to reduce imports is possible, but dont expect miracles, in most cases, it is a very painful and long process.
There is a quick solutionstoo that might improve situation significantly, but these are very tough and unpopular measures, it makes no sense to list them, anyway, nobody decides anything here and nobody will listen in government.