{"id":10721,"date":"2011-07-13T17:14:07","date_gmt":"2011-07-13T21:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/?p=10721"},"modified":"2011-07-13T17:22:50","modified_gmt":"2011-07-13T21:22:50","slug":"economic-news-and-more-13-july-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/economic-news-and-more-13-july-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Economic News and More (13 July 2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ntpd.lacors.gov.uk\/lacors\/aio\/156333\" alt=\"\" width=\"240\" height=\"161\" \/>Economic News<\/strong> (Thanks Ehsani)<strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The weak Syrian state is incapable of taxing its people.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Syria&#8217;s tax receipts from all alcoholic beverages in 2009 was $425k.<\/li>\n<li>Tax receipts from tobacco were $49 million for a country of 23 million people. (<a href=\"http:\/\/webcache.googleusercontent.com\/search?q=cache:Kv6t_6FgfmAJ:www.inforesearchlab.com\/internationalsmokingfacts.chtml+percentage+of+Syrias+who+smoke&amp;cd=3&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us&amp;client=firefox-a&amp;source=www.google.com\">60 <em>percent<\/em> <\/a>of adult males and 23 <em>percent<\/em> of adult females in <em>Syria smoke<\/em>. Around 8 percent of a Syrian smoker&#8217;s income is spent on 3.6 kilos of tobacco a year. American men smoked at a rate of nearly 24 percent of the population.)<\/li>\n<li>In spite of the enormous rise in real estate values in the past decade, Syria only collects a total of $36 million in real estate taxes.<\/li>\n<li>The country only collects 4% in taxes and duties on total imports worth $13.8 billion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Farouq al-Sharaa, Syria&#8217;s V.P., declares that Syria&#8217;s growth rate never reached 6%<\/strong> as claimed by previous governments. These figures were &#8220;manipulated&#8221;, he said and growth never exceeded 3.7%<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.syria-news.com\/readnews.php?sy_seq=134892\">?????: ??????? ??????? ?????? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ??????? ???????<\/a>Syria News<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">??? ???? ???? ????????? ????? ????? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ???????.\u00a0\u00a0 ???? ?????? ???? ???? ???????? ?? ?????? ???????? ?????? ?????? ?????? ???? ????? ?????? ????? ????????? ????? ???? ?????????, ?? &#8220;?????? ????? ????? ??? ??? ??????? ???? ?????? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ???????? ??? ???? ????? ??? ???? 6-7%? ????? ????? ??????? ???? ?? ??? ?????? 3.5%&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ????? ??????? ??????? (2006- 2010) ???? ????? ???????? ?? 7 %, ???? ??? ???? ???? ??????? ?????? ?????? ?????????? ??? ???? ??????? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ??????? ?? ????? ????? ????? ????? ????? ??? ??? 5.5 %.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">????? ?????? ????? ?????? ????????? ??????? ????? ?????? ??????? ??????? ???? ????? ??????? ????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ?? ????????, ??? ???? ??????? ????? ??????? ?????? ?? ????? ?? ??? 2010 ??? ?? ???? ????? ????????? ?? ????? ?? ?????? 3.7 % ????? ???? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ?? 6 %.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">???? ?????? ???? ????? ??? ??????? ??????? ??????? ?????? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? ????? ?????? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ??? ?????????? ???? ?????? ??? ?????? ????? ??? ?????? ???? ??????? ?? ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ?????.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Foreign direct investment in Syria fell by 28 percent last year<\/strong> to USD 1.85 billion, according to a newly released report, writes Syria Report.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Economy  Syria Considers Lowering Retirement Age to 52<\/strong> (Syria Report)<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Syrian government is working on a draft scheme to reduce the retirement age of civil servants from 60 to 52, according to Mohammad Jleilati, Minister of Finance.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>An Iraqi pipeline carrying crude oil to Syria was blown up <\/strong>on July 10, interrupting supplies, according to an Iraqi news agency.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dp-news.com\/pages\/detail.aspx?articleid=85734\">Al-Moallem discuses with Iraqi Premier regional situation.<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sufian Allaw discussed with his Iraqi couterpart Abdul-Karim Luaibi cooperation in the field of oil and gas and means of transferring Iraqi oil production to the Mediterranean across Syria. The two sides signed a memo of understanding on establishing a network of oil and gas pipelines to transfer Iraqi crude oil and gas across Syria.<\/p>\n<p>&lt;b&gt;Syrian Pharmaceutical Industries Sector&lt;\/b&gt;<\/p>\n<p>Abdul-Muhsen said that Iraq imports 90% of its medicinal needs; thus, this agreement will open the door for the Syrian factories to export their products to Iraq.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday too, Minister of health discussed with a delegation of Italian companies&#8217; representatives best means of cooperation in order to amend equipments for Aleppo and Homs oncology centers.<\/p>\n<p>Minister Al-Halqi said that the Ministry, in cooperation with European Investment Bank and Curie institute for oncology, pointed out at the importance of operating the two centers as soon as possible.<\/p>\n<p>For their parts, members of the Italian delegation expressed their readiness to cooperate at amending the equipments for the two centers after reviewing all the details related&#8230;&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>U.S. Favorable Ratings Plummet Across the Arab World <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/exchange.ou.edu\/owa\/redir.aspx?C=0fba96626f3e4f39a8bb7fb026ddd150&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.aaiusa.org%2fpage%2fm%2f4b660d0f%2f1ba8820e%2f8e7b410%2f1c4fb0b3%2f2672362181%2fVEsE%2f\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>View the poll in full<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON &#8211; July 13, 2011 &#8211; The Arab American Institute (AAI) released the findings of a poll today conducted in<strong> six Arab nations<\/strong>. Commissioned promptly after President Obama&#8217;s state department address on the popular uprisings in the Arab world, over 4000 people were surveyed. Four key findings of the poll are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>U.S. and Obama favorable ratings are at a record low<\/li>\n<li>Top Arab concerns are U.S. interference in the region and the <strong>unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Killing bin Laden has not improved relations with the region<\/li>\n<li>There is a mixed mood on the Arab Spring<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>One Syrian writes: <\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>These guys in Damascus keep changing their minds&#8230;they do something on day and decide to reverse it the next. Even Sharaa backtracked on what Bashar said yesterday. Now he is saying we will talk to even those who call for regime change. Bashar yesterday said he would not talk to them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Syrian FM says crisis between Syria and U.S., France, to be solved<\/strong><br \/>\n2011-07-13<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>DAMASCUS, Jul 13, 2011 (Xinhua via COMTEX) &#8212; Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al- Moallem said Wednesday the recent crisis erupted between his country and the United States and France over protesters&#8217; attack on the two&#8217;s embassies, would be solved within the framework of the Vienna Conventions. &#8220;I believe that demonstrators shouldn&#8217;t bypass the boundaries of the two embassies,&#8221; Moallem told a joint press conference with the Arab League (AL) chief Nabil el-Arabi. &#8220;Whoever did that was wrong &#8230; They (the embassies) shouldn&#8217;t be bypassed,&#8221; he said, adding that an expression of protest is &#8221; legitimate but in a peaceful way.&#8221; He reasserted that the Syrian government is responsible for protecting the embassies and their staffs, saying &#8220;and we bear full responsibility for that.&#8221;\u00a0 al-Moallem, meanwhile, said diplomats should obtain prior permission before heading to restive areas so that the government could be able to protect their security.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.eurasiareview.com\/u-s-hardens-tone-against-syrias-assad-13072011\/\">U.S. Hardens Tone Against Syria\u2019s Assad<\/a><br \/>\nBy Jim Lobe, July 13, 2011<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Escalating its rhetoric against Bashar Al-Assad, the White House declared Tuesday that the Syrian president had \u201clost his legitimacy\u201d but declined to call explicitly for his resignation or removal&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>The tougher rhetoric, as well as Ambassador Robert Ford\u2019s visit to Hama, comes amid growing pressure on the administration, notably from neo-conservative sectors and some liberal hawks, such as former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, to take stronger measures against the regime&#8230;.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo help end the bloodshed, Washington will need to be equally ruthless\u201d in applying such sanctions as Assad has been in applying his \u201ciron-fist-in-velvet-glove approach\u201d to the uprising against him, warned Tabler, who also claimed Tuesday that the administration was preparing such measures \u201cbehind the scenes\u201d as part of a \u201cquiet sea change\u201d in its approach to Damascus.<\/p>\n<p>But such an approach carries significant risks, according to Joshua Landis, a Syria specialist at the University of Oklahoma who publishes the widely read syriacomment.com blog.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we go down the road of augmenting sanctions in a serious way, that\u2019s a slippery slope toward military intervention, because sanctions alone can\u2019t overturn the regime,\u201d he told IPS. \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen a regime in the Middle East as tough as Assad\u2019s collapse because of poverty, and we\u2019ve learned from recent experience that poverty and blowing out the middle class are not the way to build a successful democracy in any case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ironically, he said, the latest events have served the purposes of both capitals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor Washington, Ford\u2019s trip and the tougher-sounding rhetoric demonstrate that Obama is on the side of the Arab Spring and eases the pressure on him by the critics to recall (the ambassador). And by sending Ford into the eye of the storm in Hama, Clinton has made it easier for Assad to rally his supporters around the charge that the U.S. is leading the effort to destabilise Syria,\u201d he said, adding that the latest developments were unlikely to substantially change the balance of power within the country&#8230;..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052702303812104576441782721071822.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopBucket\">Life Among Syria&#8217;s Not-So-Secret Police<\/a><br \/>\nThe power of Assad&#8217;s Mukhabarat lies largely in its visibility.<br \/>\nBy JONATHAN G. PANTER in WSJ<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/si.wsj.net\/public\/resources\/images\/EG-AC294_panter_G_20110712203621.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"332\" \/>&#8230;.In late January, when I arrived in Syria to study Arabic, most people seemed to have learned that lesson well, including my friend Ahmed. I met him at the University of Aleppo. He was a soft-spoken, 22-year-old graduate student who liked to tell me about his girlfriend and wasn&#8217;t very political. We mostly discussed poetry, compared our cultures, incessantly told dirty jokes, and generally agreed on our values. He and most young Syrians I met dwelt little on the difficulty of life under authoritarianism. They acknowledged that Syria had &#8220;problems,&#8221; but argued that President Assad was an intelligent leader dedicated to reform. They waited for change, and in the meantime shared the daily concerns of young people the world over: They studied, made friends, and dreamed of falling in love. Politically, both they and I expected the status quo, and none of us foresaw the uprisings and bloodshed to come.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote><p>Then in March, the uprisings around the Middle East spread to the south of Syria, and slowly moved north. The reaction from Damascus was fast and brutal. My language program was canceled and evacuated, but I stayed and in mid-April set out in a rickety service taxi to Belayoun. The violence had not yet reached the sleepy town, but already its inhabitants&#8217; outlook had been transformed why what was happening in their country.<\/p>\n<p>Gone was their hope for Assad&#8217;s reforms. The vicious crackdowns in Dara&#8217;a, and then in the cities of Homs and Hama, had become symbols of the thorough illegitimacy of the president&#8217;s regime of institutionalized brutality. Belayoun&#8217;s residents were no longer resigned to the injustices they had been conditioned to accept. Suddenly my friend Ahmed, the shy literature major, had become a revolutionary, by dint of joining millions of Syrians in asking to be treated like human beings and not subjects of the state. He stopped talking about his girlfriend, preferring to watch foreign news broadcasts about Syria as his face darkened with rage.<\/p>\n<p>It was this transformation in people like Ahmed that brought the tanks to Homs and Hama, to highways all over Syria, and even to little Belayoun. The people are rejecting the lesson of fear, beaten into them by decades of surveillance and intimidation. Hope is emerging even in the shadow of the Mukhabarat, the sort of hope that brings men and women to the streets to stare down gun barrels. They&#8217;ve got nothing to lose\u2014to the Syrian protesters, a life devoid of freedom hardly feels like life at all.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Panter is an undergraduate at Cornell University studying government; he left Syria on May 18.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/07\/13\/world\/middleeast\/13policy.html?_r=1&amp;ref=middleeast\">White House, in Shift, Turns Against Syria Leader<\/a><br \/>\nBy MARK LANDLER and DAVID E. SANGER, July 12, 2011<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>WASHINGTON \u2014 The Obama administration, after weeks of urging Syria to carry out democratic reforms and end a brutal crackdown, has now turned decisively against President Bashar al-Assad, saying that he has lost legitimacy and that it has no interest in Mr. Assad keeping his grip on power.<\/p>\n<p>President Obama, in an interview Tuesday with the \u201cCBS Evening News,\u201d stopped short of demanding that Mr. Assad step down. But administration officials said the president may take that step in coming days, as he did with Libya\u2019s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, much earlier in that country\u2019s popular uprising.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Obama\u2019s comments, and even stronger ones by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, showed that the administration has now concluded that Mr. Assad is no more willing or capable than Colonel Qaddafi of opening a dialogue with protesters or overseeing a political transformation.<\/p>\n<p>The turning point in the administration\u2019s public posture came after angry crowds attacked and vandalized the United States Embassy in Damascus, and the residence of Ambassador Robert Ford, after his visit to Hama, the hub of the current protests and site of a bloody crackdown by Mr. Assad\u2019s father in 1982.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><object width=\"680\" height=\"420\" ><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/SieYTLsWaEM\" ><\/param><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\"><\/param><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\"><\/param><\/object><br \/>\nSyria&#8217;s Christians fearful of future: As protests rage on, many in the community are concerned about the possible future influence of Islamist groups. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.champress.net\/\">Ambassador Ford was expelled<\/a> from a church in Damascus, yesterday.<br \/>\n<object classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" width=\"480\" height=\"390\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/Py4efNj3b9g?version=3&amp;hl=en_US\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>Good Debate on al-Jazeera between Muhammad Abdullah and Faisal Abd al-Satih, two articulate opponents. Muhammad Abdullah has been a guest in my house on a number of occasions when he first came to the US two years ago. His story is an interesting one. Following his release from jail in Syria, he was granted refugee status in the US. His father was arrested in 2005 for reading a letter written by the Muslim Brotherhood out loud at the Atassi Forum in Damascus. The US government located him to Oklahoma City, where he was given a subsidized apartment for three months. He got a job at Walmart as a cashier. After his subsidy ran out and he had practiced his English to a degree, he moved to Washington DC, where he seems to be doing well. He is a lawyer by training and is originally from Deir ez-Zor.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/peterson-update\/~3\/8aoPKy4f2qI\/sanctions-syria-2011.pdf\">Peterson Inst: Economic Sanctions Case: EU, US v. Syrian Arab Republic<\/a> (2011- : human rights, democracy) [pdf], 2011-07-12<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Post-2000  the United States has imposed three rounds of sanctions against Syria, in  response to: (1) Syria&#8217;s support for terrorist groups and terrorist activities  in Iraq; (2) its pursuit of missiles and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) &#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.jadaliyya.com\/pages\/index\/2103\/this-flag-is-my-flag\">This Flag is My Flag<\/a><br \/>\nby by Amal Hanano for Jadiliyya<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.jadaliyya.com\/content_images\/fck_images\/Sergie1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"504\" height=\"378\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For two hours on Wednesday, I was in the safest place in Syria: at  \u201cThe Longest Syrian Flag in the World,\u201d pro-regime rally in Aleppo. The  security protected, 1700 m flag, is touring \u201csympathetic\u201d cities like  Damascus, Suwaida, and now Aleppo, covering the\u00a0<em>muhalleq<\/em>, beltway from al-Bassel Circle to al-Layramoon Circle. I figured since everyone constantly calls me a\u00a0<em>mundesseh<\/em>, infiltrator, I might as well live up to the name and\u00a0<em>andass, <\/em>infiltrate  the event to get a closer look at the mysteriously brainwashed masses &#8230;&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>The  volunteers crossed the flag in socked feet out of respect, but when an  over-enthusiastic guy accidentally stepped on the president\u2019s shoulder  while taking a picture, the crowd booed, \u201cYou stepped on the president!\u201d  He looked alarmed for one second but then jumped back, kneeled down and  kissed the image. Suddenly, people started bringing their children to  the plastic president to kneel and kiss his image as well. A large,  military helicopter circled in the sky, and every time it passed, people  would wave and chant. Someone whispered to me that the president was in  it, wearing a gray suit, watching over us. The feared and admired gaze  never leaves us&#8230;..<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.advancingafreesociety.org\/2011\/07\/11\/the-syrian-challenge\/\">A Free Society: The Syrian Challenge<\/a>, 2011-07-11<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The administration\u2019s policy toward Syria is shaping up to be the greatest missed opportunity of Barack Obama\u2019s presidency. His failure of vision and nerve, paired with an acute Republican fatigue with the Middle East and foreign policy in &#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/exchange.ou.edu\/owa\/redir.aspx?C=f332f91453924cc4b07163c95cff2459&amp;URL=http%3a%2f%2flink.email.washingtonpost.com%2fr%2f1BAF0O%2fS3GP17%2fDKKXYI%2fNZW8ZL%2fL7A0N%2fAW%2fh\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Thousands of Iraqis face long wait for visas \u2014 and entry to U.S.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>BAGHDAD  \u2014 Heightened security concerns in the United States have stalled the  immigration process for tens of thousands of Iraqis who worked for the  U.S. government or American firms in Iraq and hope to move to the United States, according to U.S.  officials and refugee advocates. A  special program meant to distribute 25,000 visas to Iraqis who worked  for the U.S. government has admitted just 7,000 since it started in  2008, officials said this week.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.economist.com\/blogs\/newsbook\/2011\/07\/syrias-uprising-0\">Hama stands firm<\/a><br \/>\nJul 11th 2011, by The Economist<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>THE city of Hama is both defiant and fearful. Boys with wooden sticks man makeshift checkpoints. Burned-out government cars, rubbish bins, gates, piles of bricks and street-lamps unscrewed at the base and carefully laid across the road have been used to create blockades to prevent the security forces from re-entering the city. Even satellite dishes, with the name of Al-Dounia, a pro-regime channel, scribbled over with Al-Jazeera, have been used. The streets are eerily quiet; shop shutters are locked and the roads are almost empty of cars. No sign of the Assad regime remains. Pictures of the president, Bashar Assad, have been torn down and a plinth where a statue of his father, Hafez, once towers stands empty. Outside the city, the government&#8217;s forces wait.<\/p>\n<p>A week ago the government tried re-take the city. In response, residents say, neighbourhoods organised overnight. At least 24 people have been killed in Hama and 500 arrested since the unrest began, but security forces have not been able to enter the main areas of the city of 800,000. The city, the fourth largest in Syria, has been galvanised by its size and by its history. Everyone knows each other and word travels quickly. Everyone has a relative who died in 1982 when Hafez Assad, the former president, killed tens of thousands in an effort to quash an Islamist uprising. Everyone knows someone who lost a son, husband or father on June 3rd, a date now similarly etched on the city&#8217;s memory, when over 70 people were shot dead. They have been able to organise quickly and effectively.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Economic News (Thanks Ehsani) The weak Syrian state is incapable of taxing its people. Syria&#8217;s tax receipts from all alcoholic beverages in 2009 was $425k. Tax receipts from tobacco were $49 million for a country of 23 million people. (60 percent of adult males and 23 percent of adult females in Syria smoke. Around 8 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-syria-revolution-2011"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.8.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Economic News and More (13 July 2011) - Syria Comment<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/joshualandis.com\/blog\/economic-news-and-more-13-july-2011\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Economic News and More (13 July 2011) - Syria Comment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Economic News (Thanks Ehsani) The weak Syrian state is incapable of taxing its people. Syria&#8217;s tax receipts from all alcoholic beverages in 2009 was $425k. Tax receipts from tobacco were $49 million for a country of 23 million people. (60 percent of adult males and 23 percent of adult females in Syria smoke. 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