Bangladesh’s economy is changing shape—but when you look closer at how and for whom, the picture turns disturbing. The number of bank accounts holding more than one crore taka is shooting up at breakneck speed. In just three months, nearly six thousand new millionaires have been added. But who are these people? How is their money multiplying? Where is this mountain of cash coming from?
The answers point to a class detached from the mainstream economy—people whose wealth grows far faster than the incomes of ordinary citizens. Behind this explosion of riches lies corruption, illicit income networks, political patronage, and above all, the protection of an unelected regime that trampled the Constitution to seize power.
By March, there were 121,000 accounts holding over one crore taka. By June, that number jumped to 127,000. On average, nearly two thousand new millionaires are being minted every month. But how? Did ordinary people’s incomes rise at such a pace? Quite the opposite: wages have fallen, unemployment has surged, prices have hit the sky. So where is this money coming from? The trail leads to the banking sector, the stock market, government contracts—everywhere corruption runs rampant. Money laundering, illegal transactions, embezzlement of state funds: these are what fuel the rise of the few, while the living standards of the many collapse.
The swelling ranks of millionaires, the growing piles of cash—behind it all lies a deep conspiracy. The ouster of an elected government, the unconstitutional seizure of power, the destruction of democratic order—money was the weapon that made it possible. Foreign funds, the backing of militant groups, the complicity of factions within state forces—these painted a false picture of economic progress.
But who reaps the rewards of that “progress”? The people, or a select circle? The answer is clear: a circle of usurpers, looting the nation’s wealth, sucking the lifeblood of ordinary citizens to build their towers of cash.
This is Yunus’s magic. This is Bangladesh 2.0.
