Pakistan’s economic time bomb

RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/Getty Images Do we need another secret intelligence assessment to tell us that Pakistan is falling apart? No. If anything, that country’s slow-motion collapse been reported to death over the past several months. Nonetheless, it’s reassuring that the situation there is getting high-level attention in Washington. Much has been made of Pakistan’s troubles with ...

By , a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.
592057_081015_pakistock5.jpg
592057_081015_pakistock5.jpg

RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/Getty Images

RIZWAN TABASSUM/AFP/Getty Images

Do we need another secret intelligence assessment to tell us that Pakistan is falling apart?

No.

If anything, that country’s slow-motion collapse been reported to death over the past several months. Nonetheless, it’s reassuring that the situation there is getting high-level attention in Washington.

Much has been made of Pakistan’s troubles with terrorists and tribal militants, and there are lots of good ideas out there for how to address them. Less discussed? The country’s economic meltdown.

As Fasih Ahmed reports for Newsweek, Pakistan’s economy is in “free fall.” The country’s credit ratings are being slashed; creditors are making runs on banks; inflation is soaring; and capital is fleeing. If things continue to get worse, we may come to find that — while the two issues are certainly related — the global financial crisis did to Pakistan what the terrorists never could.

Blake Hounshell is a former managing editor of Foreign Policy.

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