|
March 11, 2007
Gasoline Prices To Jump 26%
Yep it is terrible. Gasoline is slated to rise from 34¢ a gallon to 43¢ a gallon in Iran. Iranians are bracing themselves for a fresh round of belt tightening after their government voted to impose petrol rationing coupled with sharp rises in the price of fuel.You know what rationing means. A black market. Nothing like a lot of corruption to keep an economy humming. A. Jacksonian discussed Iran's oil industry in Oil Outlook. The short version - they are mining their oil industry for capital to spend on other things. Like keeping the people happy with low gasoline prices and building nuclear weapons. If current trends prevail Iran will not be exporting any oil in less than ten years. It's hard to know what's really going on in an Iran full of Orwellian doublespeak. The Expediency Council is pursuing a 20-year plan to create an "Islamic Economy". At a recent conference of the Elite Society of Self-Sacrificers of the Islamic Revolution, economic discussions were pretty theological with calls for "economic jihad".Let me also note that Venezuela is on a similar course. This seems to be extraordinary economic mismanagement. Despite a 20 per cent increase in the national budget last year, Mr Ahmadinejad had to go back to Iran's parliament, the Majlis, six times to ask for more money. Government expenditure is extremely high and rising - a pledge to reduce budgetary dependence on oil supplements by 10 per cent each year has been thrown aside as the government has resorted to using the Oil Reserve Fund as its piggy bank. Commentators speculate that Iran has inadequate foreign currency reserves to negotiate the demands of the coming year.I covered the vegetable problem in Tomato Plot. It appears that socialism does not work. Not even when you have huge oil reserves to back it. Not surprisingly, criticism of government policy is mounting - and it goes right to the top. Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khomeini, made an extraordinary intervention on economic policy last week, stating that Mr Ahmadinejad's "trial period is over".I don't think the Iranian people will be very distracted. First off they are not too happy with being an Islamic Republic. Second off many are great fans of America and Israel. Persia once had a Jewish Queen, Esther, and they have not forgotten. Even if their rulers wish they did. Here is the story of Esther in English and Persian and a history of Hamadan, Iran, the oldest city in Iran. Esther is buried in Hamadan. Wiki has a nice bit on Esther. In any case it boils down to this. Iran is an economy run on the socialist model with a disdain for profit. Iran's moves in the Middle East are seriously harming its economy, while America hardly notices the cost of the current war. Our economic output last year increased enough to cover the whole Defence Department with money left over. This year it looks like we will have a similar increase. In Iran it is a race between nuclear weapons and economic collapse or revolution. I'm betting that nukes will not win. H/T Captain's Quarters where A. Jacksonian has some interesting things to say in the comments. Cross Posted at Power and Control posted by Simon on 03.11.07 at 09:16 PM |
|
March 2007
WORLD-WIDE CALENDAR
Search the Site
E-mail
Classics To Go
Archives
March 2007
February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 May 2002 See more archives here Old (Blogspot) archives
Recent Entries
Anndrew Coulter?
Why they hate free speech Friday fun Meat denial is so old it seems canned! Climate Alchemy - Turning Hot Air Into Gold Looking at Doctors and Drugs Your local station and Al Gore don't want you to see this! maggots make me sick! Meaningless Sacrifice wholesome ghosts brought to life on YouTube
Links
Site Credits
|
|