Ditpatch from Beirut

The Beirut Stock Exchange (BSE) is comprised of 14 desks, 14 telephones and 28 computer screens. The 14 traders work in a bored and easy silence, tapping in orders and occasionally cracking a paperback book or chatting with a comrade in the next cubicle. With only 15 listed companies, there isn’t a lot to do on the trading floor of the bourse, which is only open for three hours a day. Traders can look out their windows toward the Port of Beirut, which has been blockaded by Israel for a