Iran Suffering From Runaway Inflation

Iran is the latest socialist totalitarian paradise to suffer from runaway inflation. Zimbabwe is the poster child for hyperinflation, with inflation percentages measured in the millions. Venezuela is also on the charts, but Iran is now forced to lop zeroes off their currency to keep folks from having to wheel out truckloads to buy basic staples.

The governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Tahmasb Mazaheri, told state-run radio that monetary experts are studying three options: Cutting three zeros off the rial, cutting four zeros, or boosting each rial's value to one-hundredth of a gram of gold, or about 2,500 rials at current rates.

"We are studying all these three options," Mazaheri said on state-run radio.

The Iranian rial is now traded at 9,600 rials to one U.S. dollar. That compares with 70 rials against the dollar in 1979, the year an Islamic revolution toppled the pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

In June, Iran's government put the inflation rate at a whopping 26 percent. Independent economic experts say the actual inflation rate is even higher, at more than 30 percent. Prices for vegetables have tripled and housing prices have doubled since last summer.

The sharp rise in inflation has provoked fierce criticism of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - not only from his reformist opponents, but also from senior conservatives who helped bring him to power but now accuse him of mismanaging the economy.

It's only going to get worse for the Iranian people. Ahmadinejad's economic policies are a disaster - much like his foreign policy - and it may be only a matter of time before the Iranian people have enough of the antics of Ahmadinejad and the mad mullahs.