Angry Pakistani stock brokers ransack furniture at the Karachi Stock Exchange to protest against huge decline of stock market in Karachi, Pakistan, Thursday, July 17, 2008. Growing economic and political uncertainty pushed Pakistani shares to new depths on Thursday and triggered violent protests at the Karachi Stock Exchange.From Newsweek:
Pakistan is no stranger to economic and political crises. The country has had many since its independence in 1947, including the military coup in 1958 and a civil war in 1971. With luck, some timely help from friends and allies and the resilience of its people, the nation has always managed to survive. A host of recent troubles, however, has brought Pakistan to the brink of collapse. Vast segments of Pakistan's western borderlands are all but ungovernable, the Taliban has started to reconstitute itself in these areas and suicide bombers have struck in the hearts of major cities. These problems, coupled with a global economic downturn and food inflation, has turned this country of 165 million people into a powderkeg of popular disaffection, as last week's attack on the Karachi stock exchange shows.
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My Comment: Pakistan's stock market crashed by 35% last week. This crash essentially destroyed not only the middle class in the country, but also the infrastructure that is necessary for the raising and investment of capital. The consequences of this crash far outweigh what a hundred major bomb attacks can do .... and its effects will be long term.
A culture of corruption, Islamism, anti free market policies, a nuclear weapons program that bankrupted the treasury, and an uncaring government that is more concerned about Western soldiers in Afghanistan and its eternal conflict with India than its own security and economic mess ..... Pakistan is just a few steps away from becoming a failed nuclear state.
There are so few good options when it comes to Pakistan now.
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