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Iran's Middle Class on Edge as World Presses In

(New York Times) Robert F. Worth - The Iranian government has sent police into the streets to stop the black marketeers trading in American dollars, but with confidence in Iran's own currency, the rial, collapsing by the day, the trade goes on. Hamid, a construction engineer, explained: "Food prices are going up, and my salary is not enough." He added that he had converted almost all of his assets into dollars and had also stockpiled months' worth of rice and other staples. The new European oil embargo has yet to take effect, but there is a rising sense of panic about Iran's encirclement, the possibility of war and the prospect of more economic pain to come. The rising economic panic has illustrated - and possibly intensified - the bitter divisions within Iran's political elite. A number of insiders, including members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, have begun openly criticizing Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in recent weeks. Many wealthy Iranians made huge profits in recent weeks by buying dollars at the government rate (available to insiders) and then selling them for almost twice as many rials on the soaring black market.
2012-02-08 00:00:00
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