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LIMS Leaders' Academy - LLA 301 Shaping Public Policy
July 7-8, 2018 – Riviera Hotel, Beirut, Lebanon
This year's edition hosted 33 staff members and activists—compared to 18 last year— from 8 major Lebanese political parties, who stayed committed to the program and completed LLA 101 and LLA 201. Three new political parties joined our program this year which include: the Amal Movement, the Progressive Socialist Party and the Tashnag Party. Participants worked with Arabic speaking experts on how to build a market-oriented policy proposition to deal with Lebanon’s economic challenges.
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From Policy Papers to Reforms and Laws
Participants had the chance to speak about the lawmaking process in Lebanon with former Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud. Mr. Baroud, a highly respected and well-known legal expert when it comes to law-making in Lebanon, highlighted the different methods that can be used by the participants to get their policies adopted. Attendees were highly engaged, especially since they had already chosen their topics. After the session, each political party worked with the speakers, on defining the problems, identifying the root causes behind them, and discussing feasible solutions.
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Speed Exchange
The program included a one-on-one speed exchange session, where members from different parties got to know each other, discussed, and defended their ideas. The room was buzzing with rational, nonsectarian, and productive arguments. After the session, each party regrouped and reviewed their policies in order to refine their proposals.
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Foundations of a Free and Prosperous Society
Participants were introduced to the principles of liberty, that have shaped our world into what it is today. By contrasting the difference between free market countries and non-free market ones, staff of political parties were able to look at successful stories around the world and see how much they could learn from them. Afterwards, each party worked on refining their solutions and identified stakeholders, in order to strategically position their policy proposition.
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What started out as simple proposals, became throughout the LLA 301, a well-defined and properly-structured working plan. Each party is now ready to embark on a journey to write its own policy paper on topics relating to transportation, toll highways, private electricity production, healthcare, water, telecommunication, and attracting investments.
Click here for LLA 301 photo album
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Central Planning Increases Blackout Hours in Lebanon
July 12, 2018 – VDL Radio Station, Beirut, Lebanon
Electricity production in Lebanon is a government monopoly that does not provide 24 hours of electricity per day. Businesses and households buy electricity on the “black market” of private generators, as electricity production by private companies is outlawed. The price on the black market increased sharply in the past month and many people started to argue for further government intervention. Dr. Mardini explained that the higher bill is due to the government increasing outage hours and this was mainly caused by central planning. The electricity budget was established based on cheap oil prices, and the government spent the past years wasting resources on renting powerships and building new factories. Oil prices have more than doubled in the past year and the government does not have enough money to buy fuel for those factories!
Click Here to Listen to the Full Interview in Arabic
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Discussing Economic Freedom and the US Trade war in China
July 21-26, 2018 – Austrian Economics Summit at Northeastern University, Shenyang, China
LIMS President Dr. Patrick Mardini discussed the importance of economic freedom at the Northeastern University in China with a group of scholars, policy analysts, and students. He focused on the importance of property rights, free access to markets, low taxes, ease of doing business, entrepreneurship, and open trade. The trade war between China and the US was a major topic of discussion. Dr. Mardini explained that the balance of payment is always balanced, as trade deficit leads to a financial surplus. To illustrate, China uses US dollars obtained through trade to invest in American bonds, which explains the low interest rates in the United States.
Click Here to View the Photos
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Mutation of Bitcoin, Lessons from Today and Tomorrow
July 29, 2018 – Cathay Institute for Public Affairs at Renmin University, Beijing, China
Dr. Mardini presented empirical evidence showing that Bitcoin behaves like commodities. He then investigated the intrinsic value of the cryptocurrency and focused on its ability to transfer money out of troubled currencies. Those advantages however, do not make Bitcoin a currency, as long as depositary institutions do not start issuing interest-paying Bitcoin deposits and granting Bitcoin loans. These operations are currently inconceivable due to the absence of a contract enforcement mechanism. After the conference, Dr. Mardini was invited to share his insights with a group of 500+ Bitcoin activists.
Click Here to View the Photos
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Upcoming Events
October 2018
LIMS Leaders' Academy - LLA401 Policy Fair
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LLA Graduation Ceremony
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