Making use of Lebanon’s gold: A tangible proposal

We lost the country, but accumulated gold.Lebanon has suffered over $70 billion in losses from its banking crisis. At the same time, the country faces a severe infrastructure deficit, with $5–10 billion needed for critical projects.These pressures are compounded by reconstruction and recovery costs from recent conflicts (estimated at $11 billion) and urgent social needs, with poverty rates approaching 60 percent.Paradoxically, since the onset of the crisis, Lebanon gained over $30 billion from the global surge in gold prices. The country’s 287 tons of gold are now valued at roughly $46 billion at $5,000 per ounce, compared to $14 billion in 2019.Over that same period, Lebanon lost nearly %20 billion in annual economic output, with GDP declining from more than $50 billion in 2019 to around $30 billion in 2025.Lebanon now tops global...