Gyroscopic Investing

Iran's currency is in free fall and appears to be verging on full blown hyperinflation.

The Iranian rial plunged today against the U.S. dollar as western sanctions against the state's oil exports are really starting to up the pressure on Iran.

Earlier today, the rial was down 7 percent against the dollar, meaning it had lost a quarter of its value in just the past week...

...BBC analyst Sebastian Usher wrote that the plunge in the rial was so bad today that Iranian websites that publish exchange rates for the rial blacked out quotes for the currency's price on the website:

Read the rest here...
http://www.businessinsider.com/iranian- ... on-2012-10

And...


The Iranian Rial exchange rate against the US Dollar over the last 70 days. (Note: The calendar is Persian/Islamic hence the odd numbers.)

From here...
http://www.businessinsider.com/iran-cur ... ts-2012-10

So the economic sanctions appear to be working given the dissent at the highest levels due to the collapsing rial.

It's just too bad millions of innocent people have to suffer first.

Hyperinflation is always and everywhere a complex socio-political phenomenon.

Sorry, Milton.

Iran's currency melt down is starting to get attention in the broader media and press. A quick sampling

The WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087 ... 09458.html

The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 96448.html

The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/04/world ... wanted=all

US News and World Report
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q= ... eHZA4KoPrQ (Seriously, some sites need to learn to trim their URLs.)

NPR
http://www.npr.org/2012/10/03/162246656 ... d-currency

Council On Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/iran/irans-murky-pol ... ure/p29205

The Telegraph (UK)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/econ ... stops.html

and...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/tele ... ction.html

That WSJ article is a good reminder that America is not the cause of suffering in Iran. The Iranian government is is the real cause. Just as some liberal Jews care more about the Palestinians -- and believe me, many of us do care -- than do many middle eastern neighboring countries, I would argue that most educated people in the west care more about Iranian youth than does the government, whose main goal appears to be to keep them under control, and to jail them and torture them when they get out of line.

"We don't want nuclear energy" -- a very enlightening statement. It took a great deal of guts for them to express it in public.

Time to set up a Persian pp? But, skip the local currency. As has been stated, the pp works best in countries with relatively little corruption (We're grading on a curve, of course).