Global supply shocks are historically rare events. All the more extraordinary to have two such shocks in quick succession—the second arriving even before the first has entirely faded away. That is what the world now experiences in the form of the Great Pandemic followed by the Great West-Russia economic war. The most visible symptom of the supply disruption is the sky-high price of energy and a range of other commodities.

Most economic commentators believe balance of trade is a key factor in a currency’s exchange rate. All other things being equal, an increase in imports, which leads to a trade deficit, gives rise to an increase in the demand for foreign currency.

To obtain foreign currency, importers sell their domestic currency for it. This strengthens the exchange rate of the foreign currency against the domestic currency—i.e., there is more domestic money per unit of a foreign money.

Egypt is considered a former socialist state and a country where the tentacles of Marxism can still be found, buried deep within almost every institution, something I have observed having lived there many decades. As I watch and listen to so-called leftists and socialist activists from Europe and North America preach about the need for wealth redistribution and the benign merits of Marxist ideologies, I wonder: What, exactly, are they talking about? Experience with socialism outweighs the ideologies of Marxism.