Iran Running Out of Physical Currency, Satellite Broadcasts Dropped in Europe 480
iONiUM writes "In an interesting problem with physical currency, Iran is now running out of hard currency, due to a combination of inflation, and 'Koenig & Bauer AG of Würzburg, Germany, also says it has not responded to an Iranian request for bids to make the presses to print new rials.' Perhaps they should switch to BitCoin."
In addition to not printing money for them, the European currency presses won't sell Iran the equipment needed to print their currency domestically (not unexpected with the embargo). pigrabbitbear adds: "Eutelsat Communications, one of the largest satellite providers in Europe, has just nixed its contract with IRIB, the Iranian state broadcasting company. While IRIB's programming is still mostly up and running in Iran, the decision means that 19 IRIB TV and radio channels have now been axed from Europe and much of the Middle East."
An experiment in motion (Score:5, Interesting)
Desperation breeds war. (Score:2, Interesting)
It is pretty douchy that Israel didn't have to sign the NPT but gets weapons and reactors. These sanctions are just going to make Iran desperate. And for what? Because they might make a few nuclear weapons? North Korea hasn't nuked anyone and they talk all sorts of crazy shit.
Re:Self-stabilizing system (Score:4, Interesting)
Will someone remind me ... (Score:2, Interesting)
why there are all these sanctions against Iran. OK: I know that the government does not always treat its citizens nicely, but there are plenty of other countries that act in much the same way and they are ignored; they have a nuclear programme, but so have many other countries and some of these other countries have admitted to producing or using bombs (eg USA); they have interfered in other countries and helped to support ''rebels'', but so have others (eg USA, UK).
So if they are not doing worse than other countries including us, then what is it all about ? I do note that they are sitting on plenty of oil, so are they the next Iraq ? Better ask Cheney I suppose!
Re:Big surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
Hardly. I'm not from the US, but I feel very much te same about Iran. I also say: let 'm drown. They run a pretend democracy that still have at least half of the population keep the current set of fear-driven, fear-mongering elite in charge, They simply cannot be persuaded to not fund and otherwise stimulate all sorts of terror groups that do all sorts of stupid and dangerous shiat all over the world. They purposely suppress women and gays. They do all that and still keep expecting to be treated with respect. I say: let 'em go under good this time. Relativism with respect to what the US does *is* apples and oranges.
Re:Outraged! (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder how this will affect (or stem) hyperinflation? Generally the solution* to hyperinflation is to print mountains of money to the point that people burn it to heat their homes in the winter. However if you don't print more money (as is in Iran's case) you end up with the value of the existing currency rising at (hopefully) the same rate as the price of goods due to the limited money supply and increased demand for it.
Re:Self-stabilizing system (Score:4, Interesting)
The fact that I just wrote that in the light of a positive option makes me realize how fundamentally fucked up they actually are. I think there's a small possiblity the entire country may collapse before the next election, and a substantially higher chance before the next presidential term.
Re:Self-stabilizing system (Score:3, Interesting)
That requires an infrastructure to support that process. For instance card readers in every market or farm stand. The problem with this idea is that Iran does not own or have the capacity to create that infrastructure without significant imports from external sources. And external sources have been banned from providing this capacity.
Re:Outraged! (Score:2, Interesting)
If they're like Iraq was, they're probably printing billions in quality counterfeit western currency as part of the underground cold war with the west.
So good riddance. Sucks to have karma catch up.
Re:Self-stabilizing system (Score:4, Interesting)
And where do you propose they get their hands on large quantities of gold/silver through the embargo? Plus, the only real way such a thing *might* work is if you smelted the coins using some crap metal like tin with a vanishingly small amount of precious metal. Because trading in pure precious metal would require salt sized grains (at best) for any reasonable transaction, with the price of metal in today's market.
The gold standard and similar ideas are moronic for a variety of reasons, but even ignoring their inherent faults those systems have to use paper notes backed by some scarce item (be it gold, gems, whatever) due to the fact that trading items that are by definition scarce in small amounts is difficult at best. Maybe when there were a few million people actively involved in the economy of the day (think Rome at its peak) this was doable, but a few billion? Not a chance.
Re:Self-stabilizing system (Score:5, Interesting)
China should say fuck you to sanctions, supply Iran with yuans and score big time in the region. The US and Israel would be pretty unhappy having China in the other team.
Re:Playing with fire (Score:4, Interesting)
Get a rat in a corner, you don't know what it is going to do.
And if you're a cat, you really really want the rat to try something. The rat will die in a while anyway, when it runs out of energy or the cat tires of "playing" with it. The cat will be unharmed, and won't even exert itself too much while having fun.
I had a pet cat when a kid. We lived beside a large railway embankment which had lots of rats - big ones, but not as big as the cat. She would be sitting beside a line of three to six dead rats on the lawn almost every morning (after we learned to fully close the windows so she could not bring them into the house to be proudly shown to us). Several times, I saw her "playing" with surprisingly large rats corralled into a corner of the garden, and killing them with a neat bite to the neck only when they were too exhausted even to attempt escape. After a couple of years, there were no rats left anywhere near our house.
This is immoral (Score:5, Interesting)
It's my opinion that land and its resources belongs those who conquer it. Who ever gave anyone ownership of oil and/or land? No one, you conquer it then you defend it. I don't care if your God gave/promised it to you, or that you have been there for centuries/millenia. History has shown this time and time with European colonization of Africa and Americas, the mongol conquest of central Asia, the Islamic conquest of Northern Africa and Europe, the Israeli settlement of Palestine. In this regard, Palestine, Saudi oil, etc. all are up for grabs if you ask me, if you wish to take up the conquest.
As an American, I have no problem supporting a questionable foreign policy as long as it serves OUR national interest. I don't have a problem with double-standards, forcing our will, nor do I care whether it is fair, just, and righteous. What does bother me is the masses eating up the propaganda fed to them by our gov't and media and regurgitating it as the noble path. What we are doing to Iran is immoral, unfair and an act of war. Save me the BS of "spreading democracy", "doing the right thing", or speaking of this "world's/international community's" which is only made up of a minority group of nations.
Patriotism/nationalism is irrational, ideological and dangerous and it's running wild in the USA more than ever. The whole society/political spectrum has shifted to the right, xenophobia, intolerance and attacks on secularism are on the rise. Combine this with our hostile approach and disregard to just about any country save a few, we are perpetuating our own decline.
This choke hold on Iran to me, is doing the bidding of our ally Israel based on fickle evidence that is at best propaganda. In addition, we are also doing the bidding of the Saudis and other satellite Saudi kingdoms . I see this as the USA outsourcing its might. I don't believe this serves our national interest. The damages of our hostile actions will hurt us economically, politically and make us less safe. We are walking a tight rope over stagflation should the oil prices rise not to mention of sending more Americans in harms way.
Re:Will someone remind me ... (Score:4, Interesting)
I am by no means a supporter of Iran or its current government, but I do believe in facts. President Ahmadinejad has never said that Israel must be wiped off the map. The entire issue arose from a mistranslation of his statements, which is more accurately translated as "this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time." If you're going to use this statement to support actions against another country, please get it right.
Source here. [nytimes.com]
Re:How would you feel if the USA were banned (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, my thought was "OK, now China picks up a bit more business."
I suppose they *could* build their own, but I doubt that there's only one supplier, and I doubt that China would trust a western country will something so essential to government operations. But China is large enough that it's reasonable to build their own. Which means that it's reasonable to sell them for increased profit (in some form, not necessarily cash).
OTOH, check out China's concept of foreign aid. The US etc. gives or loans money, which needs to be spent on US etc. corporate goods. China gives projects, which they build. (Local labor usually is minor.) Then there's this useful project already there, which requires help from China to keep running. It benefit China in a few other ways, too. This does cause local resentment, as locals can't get hired to do the work (except as low level workers), but not to the extent that US loans do, which need to be paid back, and often result in local "austerity measures" being forced on a country that is already nearly broke and operating on a shoestring. And it's cheap for China, compared to the costs to the western governments of equivalent help. (Of course, in the west many financial groups get large payoffs, which the Chinese approach doesn't provide. They take their payment in other ways.)
So if a typical scenario happens, China will offer to install locally a currency printing press, in return for some concessions. (Probably political rather than financial, but no guarantees. They could also ask for resources.) They will install the plant, but it will be dependent on Chinese parts and Chinese experts. No overt threats will be made, even afterwards, but it will be clear to the government that they have been partially 0wn3d. And they will blame the Europeans for forcing them into the position.
It may not play out that way, but if it does you read it here first.
Re:Outraged! (Score:4, Interesting)
No it is not. There is no shortage of goods in Iran (I was in Iran for 3 weeks from 20 Spet.-10 Oct.). I visited tehran and a few small cities. Agricultural products are produced almost enough for their needs and Asian (Chinese , Korean, ...) products are available everywhere. Shops are full of electronics products (iPads, iPhones, Galaxy S3 and everything else) and new cars are everywhere (Mazda, Toyota, Hyundai, Peugeot, Nissan, Suzuki, and Iranian brands). Most people I saw in offices had iPhone and new Samsung phones. I had possibly the best foods, fruits etc. during my visit.
The main cause is the miss-management of government or perhaps the government is doing it on purpose. The government has let the exchange value of foreign exchanges to go up (by not offering foreign exchanges to Banks and people).
Ahmadiejad's government is paying huge amounts of money as a compensation for removing subsidies (around USD 42 billion per year). Parliament was against it because they thought government cannot sustain paying such huge money. Now the government has possibly increased the foreign exchange rates so that they can earn enough money to pay the compensations.
This is a temporary solution so that Ahmadinejad's government does not lose on its promises (until few remaining months of his government) but it will possibly harm the economy in long term.
Re:Will someone remind me ... (Score:4, Interesting)
After finally ending the puppet regime installed by the U.S. and Britain, when we overthrew Iran's peaceful, secular government. Anytime neocons want to whine about the theocratic government of Iran, they should start with the nearest mirror.
Repeating a Big Lie doesn't make it true. Not only has Iran never said anything of the kind, they haven't attacked another country in 200 years. As opposed to the real belligerent powers here: the U.S. and Israel, who have both launched dozens of first strikes or wars of choice since WWII.