sxsess

Thanks Karsten! I remember those days when even Tehran was a great place to go. Those days are long gone.

Hi Adam! In your opinion, do you think a global currency reset is possible at some point with the astronomical and unsustainable debt levels that nations currently have? And if this did happen, would Iraq be included? Thanks in advance.

Wow I didn’t realize US citizens could actually fly to Baghdad. I saw this warning about Iraq on Wikitravel when pricing a flight to Dubai. Pretty scary! WARNING: The political situation in Iraq remains extremely unstable, even though the war was officially declared as over in December 2017. Travelling there remains extremely dangerous and strongly discouraged. All foreigners are still in danger of kidnapping, murder, and general armed violence. Although the northeast provinces which comprise Iraqi Kurdistan can be considered relativelysafe for foreigners, the margins for errors are small. Sporadic violence can occur anywhere in the country. Tensions have risen especially in the beginning of 2020, with many Western countries recommending its citizens leave immediately due to the threat of a war breaking out or spilling over at any moment. If you must travel, then remain cautious at all times, and consult your embassy before you leave. For further information, see war zone safety.

I’m sure this subject has been bought up here but I just read about it. I haven’t been keeping up with current events so I apologize to the group here. This really is disheartening because of the time and $ invested here. Between the ISIS war, the pandemic and this 4th world government in Iraq I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Thank God for crypto currency because I have dwarfed my losses in Dinar with my gains in BTC, ETH and MKR. Maybe down the road this will pay off, but as of now it looks bleak. My hope is everyone here is ok financially and put in what you could lose. I love this sight! Adam is a smart and good person. I pray this works out for him above all because of his efforts over many years! It really makes me sad to see this devaluation that happened late last year. I’m still not giving up, as I’m all in to the very end! Mainly because of Adam who I have much respect for. GLTA!!

I pray for us all that have endured this for so long. This year has been a disaster for millions of people. This would be a miracle.

Iraq is basically a country of clueless selfish hoodlums that will never get it together. Reminds my of Mexico on steroids. I have been holding many dinars for a decade. If Trump gets re-elected I will hold for 4 more years. If Biden gets elected I’m selling them all. Seems like all hope is gone, at least in this lifetime. When hope is gone, what else is there?

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-prices-dive-iraqi-kurds-040035781.html As oil prices dive, Iraqi Kurds seek to diversify economy Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq Iraq's Kurdish region has for decades lived off its oil wealth, but plummeting energy prices amid the pandemic and financial mismanagement are forcing locals to return to long abandoned farms. Civil servants from the northern region's bloated public sector have gone without pay and many are now turning back to agriculture and other businesses to make ends meet. On a rugged hillside some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Arbil, the booming regional capital, vineyards are ripe for harvesting as a new source of income. Abdallah Hassan, 51, a civil servant from the nearby village of Meer Rostam, has returned to harvest the grapes, used to produce raisins and vine leaves, for the first time in almost 20 years. "There is hardly any work left for us and there are no salaries," he said, complaining that the regional government now "only pays wages every couple of months". "It's better for farmers to tend to their fields than wait for the payday or for charity." Hassan recounted how before the 2003 US invasion that toppled ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, the Kurdish region had survived on farming during years of painful sanctions. Since then, in its drive to secure lucrative oil revenues, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had mostly abandoned agriculture. Big investments from multinational energy companies have transformed the region, and Arbil has become an urban hub with skyscrapers and luxury hotels. - Patronage networks - This year, however, the Covid-19 pandemic and tumbling oil prices have taken a heavy toll, worsened by budget disputes with the central government in Baghdad. The Iraqi economy, one of the world's most oil-dependent according to the World Bank, saw its gross domestic product contract by about 10 percent this year. Mohammed Shukri, chairman of the Kurdistan Board of Investment, said putting all of the regional economy's eggs into the energy basket had proven costly. "We're rich when the oil price is high, and we're poor when the oil price is low," he told AFP. "I wouldn't call this a healthy economy." Kurdish economist Bilal Saeed also argued the region's leaders had made a strategic blunder by letting other sectors fall by the wayside. "Instead of using that revenue to develop the agriculture, health and tourism sectors, the government of Kurdistan has focused mostly on developing its oil sector and ignored the rest," he said. Over-reliance on energy has also had a corrosive effect on Iraq's state apparatus and fuelled corruption. A World Bank report this year pointed to Iraq's "failure to equitably share the benefits of oil wealth" and described a murky patronage system. "First, the dominant parties use government payrolls to reward political loyalty," it said. "Second, they use government contracts to enrich business people close to their leaderships. Third, money is simply stolen from the ministerial budgets for both personal gain and party use." It is a similar story in the Kurdish region, where lucrative state posts have long been handed out by the two main ruling parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. This has created a bloated public sector with over 1.2 million staff, around 40 percent of them in the military and security sectors, out of a regional population of five million. With its budget now bled dry and the KRG facing some $28 billion in debt, it decided in June to slash civil servants' salaries by 21 percent. But despite this, it has been unable to pay all of their wages on time, with the outstanding pay, accumulated over years, estimated at $9 billion. - 'Hit by cheap imports' - Shukri said that despite current woes, his investment board had granted 60 investment licences worth $1.5 billion, mostly in agriculture and manufacturing. But how many projects will go ahead is uncertain at a time of growing impatience among local entrepreneurs. Iraqi businesses face tough competition from imports from Iran and Turkey, whose currencies have been devalued while the Iraqi dinar remains indexed to the dollar. Baarz Rassul, whose company Hend Steel produces 50,000 tonnes of cast steel per month, pleaded for "higher customs duties and better border controls". He said when he tried to diversify into agriculture, he found it difficult to compete with cheap imports and has since dismantled his greenhouses. Saaed, the economist, said Arbil and Baghdad must work out a sustainable economic plan that serves both sides. But that may be a tall order in the short term as Baghdad grapples with a massive deficit and has given no clear timeline of when it will approve a new budget. As oil prices dive, Iraqi Kurds seek to diversify economy Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq Iraq's Kurdish region has for decades lived off its oil wealth, but plummeting energy prices amid the pandemic and financial mismanagement are forcing locals to return to long abandoned farms. Civil servants from the northern region's bloated public sector have gone without pay and many are now turning back to agriculture and other businesses to make ends meet. On a rugged hillside some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Arbil, the booming regional capital, vineyards are ripe for harvesting as a new source of income. Abdallah Hassan, 51, a civil servant from the nearby village of Meer Rostam, has returned to harvest the grapes, used to produce raisins and vine leaves, for the first time in almost 20 years. "There is hardly any work left for us and there are no salaries," he said, complaining that the regional government now "only pays wages every couple of months". "It's better for farmers to tend to their fields than wait for the payday or for charity." Hassan recounted how before the 2003 US invasion that toppled ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, the Kurdish region had survived on farming during years of painful sanctions. Since then, in its drive to secure lucrative oil revenues, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had mostly abandoned agriculture. Big investments from multinational energy companies have transformed the region, and Arbil has become an urban hub with skyscrapers and luxury hotels. - Patronage networks - This year, however, the Covid-19 pandemic and tumbling oil prices have taken a heavy toll, worsened by budget disputes with the central government in Baghdad. The Iraqi economy, one of the world's most oil-dependent according to the World Bank, saw its gross domestic product contract by about 10 percent this year. Mohammed Shukri, chairman of the Kurdistan Board of Investment, said putting all of the regional economy's eggs into the energy basket had proven costly. "We're rich when the oil price is high, and we're poor when the oil price is low," he told AFP. "I wouldn't call this a healthy economy." Kurdish economist Bilal Saeed also argued the region's leaders had made a strategic blunder by letting other sectors fall by the wayside. "Instead of using that revenue to develop the agriculture, health and tourism sectors, the government of Kurdistan has focused mostly on developing its oil sector and ignored the rest," he said. Over-reliance on energy has also had a corrosive effect on Iraq's state apparatus and fuelled corruption. A World Bank report this year pointed to Iraq's "failure to equitably share the benefits of oil wealth" and described a murky patronage system. "First, the dominant parties use government payrolls to reward political loyalty," it said. "Second, they use government contracts to enrich business people close to their leaderships. Third, money is simply stolen from the ministerial budgets for both personal gain and party use." It is a similar story in the Kurdish region, where lucrative state posts have long been handed out by the two main ruling parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. This has created a bloated public sector with over 1.2 million staff, around 40 percent of them in the military and security sectors, out of a regional population of five million. With its budget now bled dry and the KRG facing some $28 billion in debt, it decided in June to slash civil servants' salaries by 21 percent. But despite this, it has been unable to pay all of their wages on time, with the outstanding pay, accumulated over years, estimated at $9 billion. - 'Hit by cheap imports' - Shukri said that despite current woes, his investment board had granted 60 investment licences worth $1.5 billion, mostly in agriculture and manufacturing. But how many projects will go ahead is uncertain at a time of growing impatience among local entrepreneurs. Iraqi businesses face tough competition from imports from Iran and Turkey, whose currencies have been devalued while the Iraqi dinar remains indexed to the dollar. Baarz Rassul, whose company Hend Steel produces 50,000 tonnes of cast steel per month, pleaded for "higher customs duties and better border controls". He said when he tried to diversify into agriculture, he found it difficult to compete with cheap imports and has since dismantled his greenhouses. Saaed, the economist, said Arbil and Baghdad must work out a sustainable economic plan that serves both sides. But that may be a tall order in the short term as Baghdad grapples with a massive deficit and has given no clear timeline of when it will approve a new budget. As oil prices dive, Iraqi Kurds seek to diversify economy Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq Iraq's Kurdish region has for decades lived off its oil wealth, but plummeting energy prices amid the pandemic and financial mismanagement are forcing locals to return to long abandoned farms. Civil servants from the northern region's bloated public sector have gone without pay and many are now turning back to agriculture and other businesses to make ends meet. On a rugged hillside some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Arbil, the booming regional capital, vineyards are ripe for harvesting as a new source of income. Abdallah Hassan, 51, a civil servant from the nearby village of Meer Rostam, has returned to harvest the grapes, used to produce raisins and vine leaves, for the first time in almost 20 years. "There is hardly any work left for us and there are no salaries," he said, complaining that the regional government now "only pays wages every couple of months". "It's better for farmers to tend to their fields than wait for the payday or for charity." Hassan recounted how before the 2003 US invasion that toppled ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, the Kurdish region had survived on farming during years of painful sanctions. Since then, in its drive to secure lucrative oil revenues, the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) had mostly abandoned agriculture. Big investments from multinational energy companies have transformed the region, and Arbil has become an urban hub with skyscrapers and luxury hotels. - Patronage networks - This year, however, the Covid-19 pandemic and tumbling oil prices have taken a heavy toll, worsened by budget disputes with the central government in Baghdad. The Iraqi economy, one of the world's most oil-dependent according to the World Bank, saw its gross domestic product contract by about 10 percent this year. Mohammed Shukri, chairman of the Kurdistan Board of Investment, said putting all of the regional economy's eggs into the energy basket had proven costly. "We're rich when the oil price is high, and we're poor when the oil price is low," he told AFP. "I wouldn't call this a healthy economy." Kurdish economist Bilal Saeed also argued the region's leaders had made a strategic blunder by letting other sectors fall by the wayside. "Instead of using that revenue to develop the agriculture, health and tourism sectors, the government of Kurdistan has focused mostly on developing its oil sector and ignored the rest," he said. Over-reliance on energy has also had a corrosive effect on Iraq's state apparatus and fuelled corruption. A World Bank report this year pointed to Iraq's "failure to equitably share the benefits of oil wealth" and described a murky patronage system. "First, the dominant parties use government payrolls to reward political loyalty," it said. "Second, they use government contracts to enrich business people close to their leaderships. Third, money is simply stolen from the ministerial budgets for both personal gain and party use." It is a similar story in the Kurdish region, where lucrative state posts have long been handed out by the two main ruling parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party. This has created a bloated public sector with over 1.2 million staff, around 40 percent of them in the military and security sectors, out of a regional population of five million. With its budget now bled dry and the KRG facing some $28 billion in debt, it decided in June to slash civil servants' salaries by 21 percent. But despite this, it has been unable to pay all of their wages on time, with the outstanding pay, accumulated over years, estimated at $9 billion. - 'Hit by cheap imports' - Shukri said that despite current woes, his investment board had granted 60 investment licences worth $1.5 billion, mostly in agriculture and manufacturing. But how many projects will go ahead is uncertain at a time of growing impatience among local entrepreneurs. Iraqi businesses face tough competition from imports from Iran and Turkey, whose currencies have been devalued while the Iraqi dinar remains indexed to the dollar. Baarz Rassul, whose company Hend Steel produces 50,000 tonnes of cast steel per month, pleaded for "higher customs duties and better border controls". He said when he tried to diversify into agriculture, he found it difficult to compete with cheap imports and has since dismantled his greenhouses. Saaed, the economist, said Arbil and Baghdad must work out a sustainable economic plan that serves both sides. But that may be a tall order in the short term as Baghdad grapples with a massive deficit and has given no clear timeline of when it will approve a new budget.

RV when Hell freezes over.

Horsesoldier your a great man! The military in this country is all I look up to, nothing else. I’m angry, but I can’t imagine your anger. I pray everyday for the guys like you and thanks to God for the men and women in uniform. I really wished this currency would revalue. But a revaluation wouldn’t come close to justify why we were ever in that hellhole in the 1st place. This ranks right there with Vietnam. WTF for????

This is why IMO, this currency will never be revalued. Still hoping something happens but Iraq is being completely destroyed by corruption. This makes Mexico look like the United States and we all know how corrupt Mexico is.

Hi Adam, I've been keeping up with you and also with world news specific to the region and I'm very excited! This is the 1st time I have felt this confident about this actually happening. Thanks for your work buddy!!!

M Goat is so full of **** his eyes are brown. Imbecile

https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http://oilprice.com/Geopolitics/International/Kurdish-Independence-Could-Deal-A-Major-Blow-To-Oil-Markets.html&c=E,1,qiM3x-kk_ad7iOP8nxuhXxXPEajPJv4mNk4pEj6bzBBt69EMErBqu-GFibPCpXQB-6Ib0uJYRK7arPA3kwqOu4sAHnga54UilOsXSKO_zZDKbeYj&typo=1

They just need to RV their currency. That would be fireworks.

Exactly pokerplayer! It blows my away how these low-lifes protest Trump and cheer when when their Muslim was in power.