My reply to Wael Gamal’s Latest Column on the IMF Loan: Al-Radd al-Mu`tamad `ala Dalil al-Mu`tarid `ala Hijaj al-Muqtarid

Sep 03

I read Wael Gamal regularly, and while I agree with some of his positions, I disagree with others.  With respect to his latest column, the cleverly titled “Dalil al-Mu`tarid `ala Hijaj al-Muqtarid,” I have penned in this post a short reply, with the equally cleverly titled “al-Radd al-Mu`tamad `ala Dalil al-Mu`tarid `ala Hijaj al-Muqtarid”.

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Financing Social Justice in Egpyt

Jun 11

Watch this great interview with the Egyptian commentator on business and economics, Wael Gamal.  As he points out, government-provided energy subsidies to crony-capitalists are essentially a policy to provide these businessmen with supra-competitive profits.  Egypt could save a $1  billion a year simply by reducing this subsidy  by 50%, not even 100%, and the global competitiveness of these firms would not be hurt, and we would reduce the power of the NDP crony capitalists, to boot!  More generally, I would add that increasing the income of the poor is not the only way to increase their standard of living: so too, by providing them with higher quality services, e.g., education and health, you effectively increase their income by reducing their expenses.  Future economic policy must, simultaneously, increase overall economic efficiency, including,  by attracting increased investment, and introduce effective policies of redistribution whose aim is not simply increasing the real income of the relatively less well-off, but by increasing their productivity by giving them greater access to education, health care, sanitation, etc.

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Al-Arabiyya’s Interview with Ahmad ‘Izz

Feb 15

Al-‘Arabiyya, an Arabic satellite channel, conducted a lengthy interview with Ahmad ‘Izz, one of the most notorious crony capitalists of the Mubarak era.  He was known to be particularly close to Jamal Mubarak.  He has also been accused of being the architect of the spectacular fraud perpetrated by the NDP in most recent parliamentary elections which led to the NDP holding 99% of all seats in Parliament.  The brazen scale of this fraud, of course, was one of the catalysts of the Revolution and its demand that both houses of Parliament be dissolved.  The interview at least confirms that he is still in Egypt, despite rumors to the contrary.

The YouTube links to the interview are below (in Arabic without subtitles):

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbkmCFujwh0&feature=related
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myg_9glopgg
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLwmGQnFSzQ&feature=related
Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjGq0fv5oko&feature=related
Part 5 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5XTLyGqASE
Part 6 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FDP6YCxZ8s&feature=related
Part 7 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZjrlT8mBb8
Part 8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iBTWtTDwdo
Part 9 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHJimb5H_Zw
Part 10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FftA8LmmTN0

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