Iranian President Ahmadinejad Attacked by Inflation

It appears that economic inflation may be the bigger threat to the Iranian president’s political future than any aggressive sanctions from the West. The Iranian people are clearly showing signs of lost patience with the silver tongued leader due to his lack of action on the economic front at home. A situation that is certainly being carefully watched by the U.S., E.U and Russia. It appears that Ahmadinejad was full of empty promises during his “electoral campaign”, and the Iranian middle class is fed up with it.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A sharp rise in inflation has provoked fierce criticism of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – not only from his reformist opponents, but also from senior conservatives who helped bring him to power but now say he is mismanaging the economy.

Ahmadinejad was elected in 2005 on a populist agenda promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty, improve living standards and tackle unemployment. Now he is being challenged for his failure to meet those promises.

Reformists and even some fellow conservatives say Ahmadinejad has concentrated too much on fiery, anti-U.S. speeches and not enough on the economy – and they have become more aggressive in calling him to account…

A prominent economist, Mohammad Sattarifar, said Ahmadinejad is to blame for flooding the market with too many newly printed bank notes, relying too much on imported goods – including basic commodities – and using oil revenues to pay for the government’s day-to-day expenses instead of distributing it to the people as he promised to do in his election campaign.

Sattarifar said the government increased liquidity, or the amount of money in circulation, from $72.3 billion in 2004 to $148.9 billion this year. Economist Morteza Allahdad said this amount was a “huge, unusual increase in liquidity that has led to high inflation. Ahmadinejad can’t escape responsibility for this.”… More… — AP / A. Dareini

For all the so called intelligence this bafoon believes he possess, he appears to be an ignoramus when it comes to managing internal fiscal policy. His idea of flooding the Iranian economy with cheap money has backfired just as experts within his own country had warned. Will “Basic Economics 101″ in fact prevail over cultural arrogance and islamo-fascist rhetoric?

In the end, perhaps this new economic reality may be just what the doctor ordered to infuriate the Iranian people into realizing that Ahmadinejad, and his perverted points of view, along with the neanderthal thinking of the radical Islamic clerics, will do little to lead their country toward prosperity on par with the other wealthy Arab oil nations. Unfortunately there do not appear to be many political alternatives on the horizon which the Iranian people can leverage regardless of how dissatisfied they are with their quality of life. Certainly not as long as their society is held hostage by a radicalized leadership.