Economic crisis, threats of Jihad, and more violence in Iraq

[Barrett808]

Economic crisis, threats of Jihad, and more violence in Iraq
Dahr Jamail, Electronic Iraq, 15 January 2004

The big news today is the plummeting value of the US dollar in Iraq. Here are some figures to give you an idea of the current financial crisis in Iraq:

2 months ago: $1 = 1,950 Iraqi Dinars (ID)

The value continued to drop, and 2 days ago the value was: $1 = 1,410 ID

Yesterday: $1 = 1,100 ID

Keep in mind that all Iraqis working for the CPA are paid in US dollars. In addition, all of the severance pay for Iraqi ex-Army personnel, unemployment payments, and a large percentage of Iraqis are paid in US dollars.

When an Iraqi ex-Army man was being paid $60 per month by the CPA, this translated to 120,000 IDs 2 months ago. Now he makes 60,000 IDs. At the same time the cost of basic food products has been rising, and continues to rise. How is this man going to make ends meet?

...

Mr. Shuker is a Jordanian business man who does much work with the Iraqi government. He bought several containers of televisions to import to Iraq to sell, at $20,000 per container of TV's. If he sells these in Iraq, he will lose money on his merchandise now. He told me he cannot do any business now with the dollar so low. Any transaction he makes will lose him large amounts of money.


(more)

http://electroniciraq.net/news/1330.shtml

[aneerkoinos]

1. The ultimate irony

Conquer a country, but they still won't accept your currency...