Iranian leader plans to spread wealth

As reported here, the lunatic running Iran may be pushing his country into economic ruin, as he proposes spending billions "to help the poor", as critics of his proposed budget worry that the budget relies too heavily on oil profits.

"Signs that some see as troubling have already emerged. After Ahmadinejad lowered interest rates this month in a bid to decrease inflation, Iranians pulled their money from banks, rushing to buy gold coins. And while he is offering loans to encourage small business ventures in the hope of creating jobs, investor confidence seems to be wobbling, which could lead to a reluctance to invest in local industries.

Last summer, after news that Iran had resumed nuclear work prompted international concern, investors withdrew from the market and stock prices plummeted. They have rebounded only slightly since reaching their lowest levels to date in October, and persistent inflation and unemployment have fanned domestic discontent.

"The government has reached the conclusion that it needs to spend large sums of money immediately to keep its allies and the masses of people happy," Muhammad Sadeq Jannansefat, an economic analyst, wrote in the reformist daily Shargh last month as Parliament battled over the budget. He suggested that Ahmadinejad, who came to power in June on a populist mandate, was using the oil money to placate his supporters.

The government, Jannansefat wrote, "wants to distribute money and create jobs, no matter what the consequences are or what kind of jobs it is creating."

Ismail Jabarzadeh, an opposition member of Parliament, predicted that Ahmadinejad's policies could lead to an inflation rate of 20 percent in a country where inflation stands at about 14 percent, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund. "But political upheavals, such as the pressures on our nuclear program, can increase the 20 percent," he said in a recent interview.
Ahmadinejad defended his economic performance at a news conference this week, saying that his government had started to distribute "justice shares" of government industries among the poor in four provinces. Years of mismanagement, however, have left most state-run industries in disarray, and the shares were of little value.

The president also said unemployment has fallen in the eight months since he took office, but a report by the International Monetary Fund in March stated that the figure has continued to hover at around 11 percent."

So, the lunatic is doling out funds that his country cannot afford, to placate the masses, and has begun to distribute worthless "justice shares" in government run industries to the poor.
That sure looks like Soviet-style policies to me, and we all know what happened to the Soviet Union, don't we?

All I can say to the lunatic is, keep it up. Your days in power will dwindle, the more you do this this, as the common people of Iran will eventually tire of the high inflation and unemployment rates, and (hopefully) will take matters into their own hands.