Posted on 09/21/2021 9:12:36 AM PDT by elpadre
Now that the Taliban have reportedly taken full control of Afghanistan and begun forming a government, a looming challenge awaits: How will they keep their country and economy afloat financially?
For the past 20 years, the US government and other countries have financed the vast majority of the Afghan government’s non-military budget – and every cent of the fighting force that melted to the Taliban so quickly in August 2021.
Now, with American aid likely out of the question and billions in central bank foreign reserves frozen, the Taliban will have to find other means to pay for salaries and support citizens and infrastructure.
I’ve been studying the finances of the Taliban and American-backed government for many years as an economic policy analyst at the Center for Afghanistan Studies. Understanding how the Taliban will pay for their government begins with the last time they were in power over 20 years ago.
In the 1990s, Afghanistan was a very different country.
The population was under 20 million and relied on international aid groups for the few services they could provide. In 1997, for example, the Taliban government had a budget of just US$100,000, which was barely enough for the salaries of government officials, let alone the entire country’s administrative and development needs.
Today, Afghanistan has changed markedly. The population has grown significantly, and its citizens increasingly came to expect services such as health care, education and basic utilities. In 2020, for example, Afghanistan had a non-military budget of $5.6 billion.
As a result, Kabul has been transformed from a war-ravaged city into a modern capital, with a growing number of high rises, internet cafes, restaurants and universities...
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
I’m fine with every single person dying.
Fix your own shithole.
Ummmmm…..
I don’t think the Taliban worry about building roads and schools.
“Where the Taliban gets its money
Meanwhile, the Taliban had their own significant revenue streams to finance their insurgency as it gained control of the country.
In the 2019-2020 fiscal year alone, the Taliban raked in $1.6 billion from a wide variety of sources. Most notably, the Taliban earned $416 million that year from selling opium, over $400 million from mining minerals like iron ore, marble and gold, and $240 million from donations from private donors and groups.
US intelligence agencies and others believe that various countries, including Russia, Iran, Pakistan and China, have helped finance the Taliban.
With those resources, the Taliban were able to buy plenty of weapons and grow their military ranks as they took advantage of the U.S. withdrawal and conquered Afghanistan in a matter of weeks.
But winning the war may be easier than running the county, which faces many problems.”
And with China’s help in the shipping industry and Mexico’s willingness to assist in the destruction of this country, Afghanistan will be able to move drugs into this country by the container load.
Gonna be a rough road ahead.
I’d like to thank the 40-50 million that may have actually voted for CornPop, 5 or 6 corrupt and greedy Governors-SOSs-AGs-Lt Governors-State Legislatures, a few state courts, some really crooked and corrupt election workers/officials and, of course, Dominion. Collectively, you have all worked wonders for this country and it’s only been about 8 months. I’m sure you’ll all be real happy with what’s going to happen in the next 3+ years.
As a result, Kabul has been transformed from a war-ravaged city into a modern capital, with a growing number of high rises, internet cafes, restaurants and universities.
Most of the developmental and infrastructure spending that has taken place since 2001 has come from other countries. The US and other international donors covered about 75% of the government’s non-military spending during those years. In addition, the US spent $5.8 billion since 2001 on economic and infrastructure development.
If it weren’t for the foreign government workers, aid workers, do-gooders, contractors and the US military those people would have still been eating dirt all these years. Most, if not all, of those high rises, internet cafes, restaurants and universities will be gone within a year. The Chinese or South Koreans, whoever gets the mining contract, aren’t going to sent that many folks there. Just enough to manage things and keep control of the slave labor they’ll be using.
Here we go...our brain dead media keeps talking about Taliban, AS IF they are a legitimate government (of an actual nation), with duly elected leaders who fulfill legitimate and agreed policies, nominated and voted-in by autonomous citizens.
Our ‘media’ has forgotten their basic Civics and World History 101 curriculum.
Duuuuhhhhh...!!
No mention of creating wealth by working at a job, getting an education including at a trade, starting small businesses, reclaiming the land for agriculture or investing and risking capital. Just the stuff a welfare user would mention (drugs and somebody sending them money).
Hunter and Jao Bai-din's finances will also rely on drugs, ores and China.
Ending up in private bank accounts in Switzerland.
This muslin leader is the same as that muslin leader.
....Kabul has been transformed from a war-ravaged city into a modern capital, with a growing number of high rises, internet cafes, restaurants and universities...
All of these amenities will soon crumble into dust under the Taliban!!
And Afghanistan will become a drug-smuggling Fifth-World satellite of communist China!!!!
That did not need to happen, if we only had election integrity in the USA in 2020!!!!
I don’t care what fails or works in Afghanistan. If they starve and fail, that’s on them. Best bet is to sell the entire country to china now, run while you can.
China’s going to have a rough time financing their new Muslim friends and bail out their own economy at the same time.
By the way, Blackrock and State Street have pretty heavily invested in Evergrande and other Chinese RE/Debt stocks.
Smartest guys in the room, always.
Until they aren’t.
Their REM reserves are in the trillions of dollars.
Why do you think we were there for 20 years?
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