The fact that Iranian firms have proven resilient under sanctions does have its benefits. This resilience has helped keep Iran’s economy from sliding into a deeper crisis. The resilience of businesses is also critical if Iran is to take advantage of any sanctions relief offered in a future diplomatic agreement. But the processes that underpin this resilience have significant distributional consequences. The sustained profitability of Iranian companies under sanctions represents an extraordinary and ongoing transfer of economic welfare from households to firms. In effect, not only are sanctions failing to weaken Iranian companies and their elite owners, but they are also hurting Iranian households profoundly. This suggests that the enhanced pricing power of Iranian firms and inflated corporate dividends are under-examined contributors to rising economic inequality in Iran, where the top income decile now controls nearly one-third of the country’s wealth. Sanctions were meant to make Iranian companies pay, but it is the Iranian people who are footing the bill.
-
2023-03-09
-
2023-02-23
In a new wave of diplomatic escalation, several European countries summoned Iranian diplomats on various excuses amid renewed Israeli bluffs against Iran. The European hostile rhetoric against Iran has come with Israeli allegations that the Europeans are planning to snap back international sanctions on Iran before the upcoming UN General Assembly meeting later this year.
-
2023-02-16
The demands are rising! End the sanctions on Syria. Thousands caught under the rubble. Tens of thousands are homeless. Yet U.S. sanctions are blocking every form of relief.
-
2023-01-30
Iran and Russia have linked their banking systems, a senior Iranian official said on Monday, a move that will allow the two heavily sanctioned countries with deepening economic ties to trade and conduct business outside the US financial system.
-
2023-01-25
Foreign Affairs, a highly influential US magazine - effectively a US empire house journal - has published an article detailing how sanctions are quickly losing their efficiency as a weapon in Washington's global arsenal.
-
2023-01-22
The New York federal bank has been enforcing stricter controls on international transactions by Iraqi commercial banks to hinder Iran from accessing dollars
-
2023-01-22
A dispute involving the Panama, Iran and the U.S. continued to develop over the weekend, with the Iranian authorities seekig to play down a claim by the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) that it had cancelled the registration of 136 Iranian-linked ships in the past four years over concerns about sanctions-busting.
-
2023-01-19
The adoption of commodity-backed currencies by the Global South could upend the US dollar’s dominance and level the playing field in international trade.
-
2023-01-18
Russia and Iran are in talks over a plan to launch a new cryptocurrency backed by gold, which could be used in their bilateral trade deals. The news follows a scheme revealed in August last year for Iran to use crypto-currencies to settle cross-border trade deals, as a way of bypassing the international banking system and avoiding the use of U.S. dollars. While at least one trade deal was settled using a cryptocurrency, it is not clear if there has been any wider take-up of the mechanism.
-
2023-01-13
Data suggests that US dollar reserves in central banks are dwindling, as is the influence of the US on the world economy. This presents a unique opportunity for regional currencies and alternative payment systems to enter the vacuum.