The world is rightly looking for ways to help Afghans without helping the Taliban, until or unless the Taliban forms a government the world is willing to recognise. In the coming months, many Afghans face growing hunger and even starvation. As someone who helped rebuild Afghanistan’s central bank in the years after 2001, I believe Afghanistan’s immediate economic crisis is complex – but not unsolvable. This article¹ sets out my understanding of what is happening and proposes using the central