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Iran Running Out of Physical Currency, Satellite Broadcasts Dropped in Europe
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."
That is what happens when you take with one hand and flip everyone the bird with the other.
One of those Karma things.
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If not, then why is this story on a site labeled News for Nerds.
This story doesn't belong here. This is just political trolling. Stop it editors.
More likely it brings an entire economic system to a halt, with the possiblity of bank collapse. This isn't like in more normal economic situations, where things do tend to find balance. There's a huge, unnatrual, external force at work in the sanctions. Most of the monitary value in modern systems is on paper or in computers in banks. You have money in your savings account, but that money is actually invested in someone else's mortgage, not in a big bag with a '$' on it in the vault. When people fear inflation, they got to the bank and withdraw money so they can spend it. But to do that, you have to have actual physical cash to withdraw. If Iran can't find a way to keep liquidity (printing money may be the only option they have left) then the economy freezes up,similar to what was happening in the US in 2008/9, where businesses couldn't find short term capital. If they can't print money, I frankly don't know what they'll do. I believe this would be unprecidented.
So they'll have more time to hang around the mosque instead of sitting home, watching Baywatch reruns.
Have gnu, will travel.
the huge unnatural, external force in question is depending upon other nations, nations known to be hostile to your ideology, for essential services like printing money
what i am saying is the narrative of blame the west is fake and contrived. blame the iranians for the fruits of their own choices
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Probably not. When people get nervous about their financial systems, they want real money that they can put their hands on. Which makes sense because if the financial system collapses, you don't want to have to depend on middlemen that could collapse as well. So, it might actually do the opposite. When this passes (not saying how long that will take, but at some point something has got to give) then the people will remember being unable to get hard currency. So, it could be that they will be LESS inclined to use electronic payments than they are now.
Could this be a catalyst that forces more widespread electronic payments adoption - stored value cards, mobile phones, etc. - in lieu of paper currency?
Only if Iran can make the stored value cards, mobile phones, etc., by themselves. Otherwise, it just makes matters worse.
Actually, of course, Iran running out of currency is silly. All they have to do is accept lower quality printing on their currency from cheaper presses. When the Nazis tried counterfeiting English Pounds during WWII they had to reject the first run because their "currency" was so much better than the "real" notes - the implication is that people will accept anything as currency, providing that the government is behind it (and very publicly executes any counterfeiters that they catch :-) .
As a signatory to the NNPT, Iran has every right to develop nuclear power, enrich uranium and have access the full nuclear fuel cycle. Israel and the USA are attempting to deny this capability to Iran because they *might* build a nuclear weapon. Despite the fact that U.S. National Intelligence assessments concluded that Iran had abandoned its weapons program 10+ years ago.
Iran has bent over backwards to accommodate UN (i.e. USA) demands for access to its facilities, but EVERY TIME Iran has compromised, the USA and Israel create another hoop for them to jump through.
Demands of "the world"? LOL Demands of Israel and the USA.
"You and me" aren't the legitimate government of a sovereign state recognised by the UN. Well, you might be, but I'm definitely not.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Or you could have situations like other countries that have/had hard currency shortages. Instead of increasing value of the domestic currency, there is increased demand and prices for foreign currencies. This kind of messes up investment and international trade, and can potentially make the inflation of domestic currency worse. I don't know how the embargo would factor into that though.
In short, the embargo is working. I'm actually quite pleased at all of this. It's very good to see diplomacy working in place of - and, really, better than - war.
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
Iran Sanctions Now Causing Food Insecurity, Mass Suffering
It may be worth reading this, iranian are now facing severe food shortages and lack of medicine, this will physically weaken the population and have an actual death toll. Who are we to impose such misery, and why is the EU doing this? It's a shame, and possibily an act of war. The population won't overthrow the regime either, because they're being weakened and growing dependant on the regime for their survival. These sanctions are absurd, abject and only useful if the US/Israel intend to attack the country thereafter.
Actually, countries have defied the US without this happening, even with strong US sanctions, because the rest of the world thought the US position was stupid and didn't support it (e.g., Cuba). Iran's pissed off a lot more countries than just the US, and it wouldn't be having the problems it is if that wasn't the case.
It wouldn't be the first time that a country has started a war to take pressure off a domestic situation.
Yes, that probably is what Obama and Netanyahu are trying to do.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
My point is exactly that the people should be deciding what money is
Yes, yes, and now I have to spend 30 minutes on every transaction making sure that the gold coin I've been given is a) really gold b) hasn't had any shaved off c) etc etc etc. Works fine for everyone with scales and a water bath to whip out at the grocery store checkout as everyone in line behind you groans (and you thought the person with 200 coupons was bad!)
Using cheap metals for coins was the fix for Gresham's law. All money is "bad" money, so scraping a little off each coin won't get you much more than metal splinters.
"1) Refusing to fulfil it's obligations as an NPT signatory. It is fairly unique in this regard."
Along with the USA refusing to filfil its obligations as an NPT signatory, you mean? There aren't many signatories failing it, but the USA is one.
And if Iran withdrew from the NPT, would it get the embargo lifted?
the huge unnatural, external force in question is depending upon other nations, nations known to be hostile to your ideology, for essential services like printing money
what i am saying is the narrative of blame the west is fake and contrived. blame the iranians for the fruits of their own choices
Riiight. Because the situation Iran is in has nothing to do with the West. The US and its allies have been trying to take down Iran since they tried to nationalize their oil companies in the early 1950's. Iran has been demonized in the western press to encourage public support for attacking them. This hyperinflation situation is one more aspect of the full-court press being put on Iran by the US and its allies. Iran is under enormous pressure to play ball the way Washington and London want them to.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Iran is under enormous pressure to play ball the way Washington and London want them to.
Washington, London, and much of the Middle East. In addition to most of Europe. And a lot of Asia (along with Australia). I'm not sure if most of Africa or South America really care either way.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
At some point you are going to have to notice that the Cold War ended over 20 years ago and the CIA meddling in Iran happened over 50 years ago. In your mind, that is a causative action. That what the regime does today, is a reflection of that event. In 2012.
So let's just keep playing this game, shall we?
In 2001 Al Qaeda attacked the USA with hijacked planes (oh, right, sorry, i forgot: this is because the USA gave Bin Laden a Stinger missile in the 1980s). In 2045, a fascist rises in the USA, and declares war on Mexico and Canada. But: this is the fault of Bin Laden because of 2001, right? I mean I'm just trying to follow through on your logic here.
Of all the events that happened in and to the USA in fifty years, we are going to selectively choose 9/11 as the formative, causative, and the ultimate point of blame, responsibility and accountability upon which to hang everything the USA does. Right? I think this is great: the USA has no more responsibility for its actions. It can do horrible vile things, and we will have people like you explaining to us it is because of what Bin Laden did ten years ago. twenty years ago, thirty, forty.
Look: the USA did plenty of evil in the Cold War. So did the USSR. Why can't we creatively explain Bin Laden as the fault of Putin and Moscow? Isn't it that he was fighting the USSR in the 1980s?
Does the absurdity ever enter into your mind?
The USA nuked, NUKED Japan. I mean this is truly horrible by orders of magnitude compared to the kind of things the USA did in Iran, right? That's why the Japanese are a theocracy that suppresses it's own people (2009 green revolution... oh wait! Tehran regime says that's the West's fault! of course!). That's why the Japanese threaten it's neighbor with annihilation, right? That's why the Japanese have murals of the great Satan USA everywhere and march every year to chant down with the USA. It's completely understandable. It's not like the Japanese are real people with their own thoughts and motivations, they are just empty avatars of revenge in line with your own prejudices, right? Why claim responsibility for your own actions when we have such a wonderful narrative of perpetual victimhood?
This is you: you dislike the USA. That's fine. That's your right to dislike the USA. It's the bullshit alternareality you construct with your prejudice that's the problem. In the constant web of causes and effects in the world, you latch onto certain events out of hundreds of thousands. You ignore the 999,999 other events, and selective construct a creative fantasy cause and effect chain to match your predisposed opinions. Doesn't matter if the event is from fifty years ago, it just has to fit your Hollywood narrative. You ignore everything since. You ignore everything before. You point to this event as the ultimate formative cause, ever. In all of Iranian history. Of all the actors on the world stage. Because it has to match your prejudice.
Then, and here's the part where my mind blows up: you use the fantasy cause and effect chain to disavow the theocracy in Tehran of all responsibility since 1979 (the revolution happened decades after the CIA meddling, but never mind, pesky details). Today, Tehran is now innocent of anything it could have ever possibly have done wrong. Because CIA 1950s. Duh. And, here's the wonderful zinger: all that Tehran does is also clearly the blame of the USA! Awesome!
Doesn't the stink of the laughably absurd cognitive dissonance ever get to you?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it