Inflation and You: The Maskirovka Wallet

Thanks to the rampant inflation of the Lebanese Pound (LBP), the 1,000LBP note that used to be worth 0.66USD is now worth 0.1USD. The 100,000LBP bill that used to be larger and worth 66.66USD is currently penned at 1.12USD. New 100,000LBP notes are suspiciously smaller too, quite close to the size of the now almost unobtainable 1,000LBP.

Enters Maskirovka (Russian: маскировка, lit. 'masking, disguise').

Historically also known as Potemkin Village, Maskirovka means to disguise something useless into something valuable.

Those two bills look suspiciously similar, don't they?

This wad of 1,000LBP worth less than a dollar has a 100,000LBP note wrapped on top, and the whole package shoved into a small plastic bag or wrapped with a small rubber band.

If you are accosted by some mugger who has the drop on you, you can throw at him this version of a throwaway wallet while telling him fearfully "Here! This is my whole salary of 10 million LBP, take it and let me be!" prior to running away.

Et voilà ! You've just survived a mugging with the insignificant expenditure of less than two dollars (And some cardio)

"Travailler en pauvre" ;)

For more information about our courses and material, please don't hesitate to email or call us.