Saddam’s Exchange Rate
One of the most commonly quoted facts is that the exchange rate under Saddam Hussein was one Iraqi Dinar for three US dollars. That is true, as far as it goes, but here is the catch. Saddam Hussein himself personally set that exchange rate. He could have said, “One Iraqi Dinar buys 20 US dollars”, if he had wanted to. Just because that was the official exchange rate, doesn’t mean that is what people were actually trading it for. The old Iraqi Dinar could not be freely traded on the world market, so this exchange rate was essentially meaningless. This rate was only open to those who were close to Saddam.
