By Ahiza Garcia, CNN Business – San Francisco (CNN Business)Bill Gates is back on top. On Friday, Gates surpassed Amazon (AMZN) CEO …

by reuters.com -- - It was 2008 and unlike many countries, Lebanon was sailing through the worst global downturn in 80 years largely unscathed. With a booming economy and resilient banks, central bank governor Riad Salameh confidently talked up Lebanon’s success. “I saw the crisis coming and I told the commercial banks in 2007 to get out of all international investments related to the international markets,” Salameh, now one of the world’s longest-serving governors at 26 years, told the BBC at the time. Those efforts were lauded by the IMF and accolades followed. More than a decade later, however, his record is under attack. Detractors partly blame Salameh’s policies for Lebanon’s worst economic crisis in 30 years, including strains in the financial and banking system not seen even during the 1975-90 civil war. Defenders view the central bank as the linchpin of stability and one of few institutions that has operated effectively through years of bad government by politicians whose corruption is the underlying cause of the crisis.

Protesters on the streets, who once revered Salameh’s ability to steer the financial system through bouts of unrest, now daub graffiti on the walls of the central bank. “People used to think the governor was a god but now they know what is happening,” said Leila, a 30-year-old entrepreneur. The policies that largely defined his tenure include the Lebanese pound’s peg to the dollar and, in recent years, so-called “financial engineering”, involving siphoning dollars from local banks at high interest rates to keep the government’s finances afloat. His approach has drawn increasing criticism in the wake of anti-government demonstrations that erupted on Oct. 17 and led Saad al-Hariri to step down as prime minister, panicking depositors to pull billions of dollars from banks. This week banks shut again, after being closed for much of October, and have restricted transfers abroad and curbed U.S. dollar withdrawals.

DWINDLING INFLOWS

By AFP — BEIRUT: Lebanese protesters who have been demanding radical reform reacted with anger Friday to the reported designation of a …

BEIRUT (Reuters) By Tom Perry and Laila Bassam– Three major Lebanese parties have agreed on nominating Mohammad Safadi, a former finance minister, to …