Mubarak's Decent

1. What were the underlying causes, economic and political, of the collapse of the Mubarak regime?

The underlying cause of the collapse was mainly because of the insane wealth gap between the poor and the rich, with 44% of the population essentially in poverty. Also when the global economic downturn, it was a recipe for disaster. Compared to 2008, in 2009 a lot of the growth drivers in all industries had slowed down, along with the rest of the world's. Hosni Mubarak's reign over the Egyptian government has been 25 years and during this time, not only have they amassed a large personal fortune, that was banked over seas, but they also become corrupt in trying to maintain power. The elections and votes held were just a poorly veiled guise of democracy and freedom. It wasn't true Universal Suffrage. In 2011 when the collapse happened, it was spearheaded by the average man. Your working joe with social media. Once again proves the pen is mightier than the sword.

2. What do you think the Egyptian government needs to do in order to get the economy growing again and to attract foreign capital? What are the risks to the government of taking such actions?

The Egyptian government needs to go through economic reform. Subsidies that it cannot afford to pay must be removed and actions must be made to make Egypt favourable for foreign investment. Lowering tariffs and other taxes would be a good start to increase exports and other investments. Giving subsidies or other benefits to foreign internationals would be a good way for them to attract foreign companies to set up and establish their operations here. No doubt their previous track record is something that potential investors look poorly on, but they have to show that they are foreign friendly. Even the chance of corruption would scare away a lot of western companies. Tourism is also a very important aspect of the Egyptian economy with 12% of the GDP generated from tourism. If companies see that people want to "play" here, they will realize people want to work here, and where there are tourist, there is money. There are however many dangers to this. Many domestic companies, when foreign ones are given such benefits will not be able to compete. Many high-tech industries will not be able to compete with foreign ones. They could also go the manufacturing route to temporarily ease the un-employment rate. Also when foreign investment is your main source of income, it may cause a conflict of interest among international affairs in the future. Egypt may be pressured to fall in line with an ideology or direction of the foreign investor. Another

...