2023-07-16

MntGoat’s latest on July 13, 2023 is a mixed bag, optimistic and pessimistic. It seemed like the RV was all but in the bag, awaiting the inevitable project to delete the zeros, but something’s happened to delay it.

We know the reinstatement is planned or should I say was planned. The project to delete the zeros was even announced in the Mosques on both past Fridays but where is it?

She goes on to say that she thinks entities in the US are primarily responsible for the holdup, speculating over three variations of reasoning:

  • they still see too much corruption in Iraq or potential for bad actors to profit off of the RV
  • they are themselves terribly corrupt and fear that pulling the trigger could reveal their corruption
  • they are committed to holding out until the Oil and Gas Law is finalized and in place.

MntGoat also discusses the question: so much money has flowed into Iraq, why is the country’s infrastructure still so beat-down, and war-damage still in evidence? (Answer: corruption and provincialism)

She discusses the new fuel-swap arrangements with Iran. Iraq and Iran have established a trade where Iran provides electricity and natural gas to feed Iraq’s electricity generators (a chronic issue) and Iraq provides “black” oil (raw crude and fuel-oil, I think) in return. No dollars involved, so no sanctions-violations, they think. Personally, I think we’ll know something is fishy if the US government agrees or fails to act on it (of course it is a sanctions violation!).

MntGoat has much more, and much more depth. I strongly encourage you to visit her blog.

2023-04-19

MntGoat has been remarkably optimistic in her last 3 or 4 newsletters. https://mntgoatnewsusa.com/latest-mnt-goat-newsletter/

A point of confusion is her repeated assertion that the dinar-dollar rate is 1000:1 when the CBI’s site still says 1310:1. I firmly believe that the plan is to soon go to 1000:1 then revalue and forex shortly after; at 1000:1 revaluing to 1:1 is an arithmetic no-brainer.

MnGoat’s newsletter includes reports that the in-country street-rate is coming down, closer and closer to the official rate. New government rules requiring in-country use of dinar surely support a stronger dinar (aka weaker dollar) on the street. Iraq has also restored some of citizen’s ability to acquire dollars so the acute pressure driving the dollar’s surge is relieved.

There’s still the substantial disconnect between the dollars needed for imports vs the dollars actually exchanged, and the elephant in the room continues to be that the extra dollars apparently flow to Iran. If the PTB know about it (how could they not?) but allow it to continue, then it must be OK with them, right?

2022-06-18

It was a topsy-turvy week. Thursday, MntGoat posted that she had a great deal of interesting news but she wasn’t going to share it with us because it seemed that none of us cared enough about the amount of work she puts into her newsletters. She didn’t feel appreciated. She was considering dropping the newsletter altogether.

Pure speculation on my part, but I think she meant that “Free-will GIFT to Mnt Goat on PayPal” have been drying up. There is no compensation to her for sharing her wisdom and insights, but it takes a lot of time and effort (which could have been spent on family, the gasthause, etc, instead) to make sense of the news regarding the RV, and even more to construct a meaningful post to summarize it for her blog-followers. (I understand. Even as I compose this there are 10 other things that need my attention but aren’t getting it.)

However, MntGoat followed up a few hours later with a normal newsletter.

If you can spare $5 or $10, consider sharing it with MntGoat. Since we can’t offer feedback directly, it’s the only way I can think of to tell her that we do appreciate all the hard work, sacrifice, and expertise that go into every MntGoat post.

This is the link that MntGoat includes in her newsletter to give a “Free-will GIFT to Mnt Goat on PayPal”: https://paypal.me/MntGoatNewsletter?locale.x=en_US

Please be as generous as you can be!

2022-05-08

I can see by the surge in visitors to this site that MntGoat hasn’t posted in a few days. Her blog is here. In years past early May has seen her very busy with personal and community/cultural affairs; I imagine that is the case this year as Covid restrictions are lessened.

The election drama continues with al-Sadr maintaining his strong stand against the Coordination Framework (CF) and Nori al-Maliki. This is a fascinating development in Iraqi politics where the “majority” Shiites are themselves fractured and do not represent a single bloc. After the Sadr coalition was blocked from nominating a Prime Minister by Maliki’s quorum-based tactics, al-Sadr threw down the gauntlet by giving CF 40 days during Ramadan to try to establish a majority government themselves with no interference from Sadr. CF has failed because those aligned with Sadr (a broad coalition across Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite MPs) have remained committed to Sadr’s “Iraq for Iraqis” agenda (as opposed to CF’s “Iraq for Iran and Shiites, and we’ll throw you others a bone”). I have read that after the 40 days expires this week, al-Sadr next calls upon the “Independent Ministers” (mostly Kurds and Sunnis) to form a majority-bloc in Parliament — this really means to align with either Sadr or CF in such numbers that the bloc represents 2/3 plus one of the Parliament (they need a full 2/3 to make the quorum required to nominate the PM).

The formation of the Iraqi government by constitutional means is certainly a primary obstacle to any movement to re-instate the dinar. Only after this ‘stability’ and ‘security’ milestone is attained can the PTB, including the CBI, seriously push for the re-instatement.

The next major impediment IMHO is Iraq’s failure to fully resolve the Kurdish question. We all know the Constitution and the Law says that Kurdish oil is Iraq’s oil, but the Kurds have continued to operate their oil fields as if they are an independent Kurdish state rather than a region of Iraqi citizens. Iraq since 2003 has treated Kurdistan both ways as it has been convenient to do so, plus Iraq has repeatedly failed to implement article 140. Iraq must fully resolve the constitutional issues of Kurdistan and Kurdish oil.

2021-10-30

A slow mid-year by any measure.

The real MntGoat has posted systematically. MntGoat’s blog is here. She says, and I agree, that progress has been made in areas that support the inevitable IQD re-instatement. Also, we read of an emerging Middle Eastern trading coalition, including Iraq, which plans to periodically recalculate the relative value of each member-country’s currency — can’t do that if IQD isn’t floating!! January, 2022, is a likely target but must be preceded by “the project to delete zeroes” in early December.

Election: The Iraqi federal election has gone well but results are not final as vote-recounts proceed and the risk is still high that Iran-backed Shia militias (who lost support and representation) will cause trouble (as they regularly threaten to do). al-Sadr has consistently and effectively acted to bring all the militias under government control. Corruption was a major election theme and anti-corruption efforts continue to gain support.

Sovereignty: Iraq’s ability to manage its own affairs continues to suffer, and they publically reject true hands of friendship.

Economy: Living conditions in Iraq prompt increasing numbers of people to flee at any cost. Too bad for them since after a perilous journey they are not eagerly embraced at their destination.

Security: Iraq’s ability to contain the terrorists in its midst remains questionable but occasionally effective. Indeed, ‘civil’ society has a different meaning there as towns attack their neighbors for ‘justice’.

A floating and stable Iraqi currency should bring many benefits to the country which would improve the lives of all Iraqis. Fingers crossed.

2021-07-31 Update

Hi All! Greetings to all the new sign-ups, we appreciate your interest!

Please, everyone, feel free to chime in with commentary on the material being presented. Comments on this site are moderated but the bar is pretty low: as long as your post does not appear to be gibberish spam or a link to a free viagra site, it’ll pass the filter.

The real MntGoat’s latest post mentions Iraq’s efforts to “ascend” to WTO membership. (What pomposity! “You may ascend into our organization once we deem you worthy.”) She offers:

… [D]oes Iraq need a currency to join the WTO? Technically they do not and that is a FACT, however I am told they will in this case and they plan to turn the currency on at that time. I suspect they will probably wait until just around Jan 2022. But this is just my guess for now.

WTO membership would be a great boon for the Iraqi economy, opening doors to international trade that could help Iraq transition from an economy dependent on oil, imports, and gifts toward one that produces things that other people desire to buy. I think MntGoat is spot-on regarding the intention to “turn on” the currency when WTO membership is granted. While not strictly necessary for the WTO, “owning” their currency would be a point of pride for Iraq when taking this highly-visible step on the international stage — embarrassing if they didn’t have their own currency, and a real statement if they did. WTO membership could be the tipping point for the dinar’s re-instatement.

Sovereign integrity and Iraqi “homeland” security have always been regarded as key elements to a potential dinar re-instatement. The sovereignty/security situation in Iraq is as poor as ever. Iranian proxies continue to pepper the country with rocket and mortar fire, concentrating on sensitive targets like US military and Baghdad’s business and diplomatic centers. The PMF practically runs a shadow-government which the Iraqi government seems powerless to diminish or uninterested in addressing. ISIS is re-ascendant, conducting raids, killing and kidnapping citizens, and blowing things up — the Coalition’s “advisors” better get moving on all that “training” they’re supposed to do (except they have been “training” the ISF for years already!) Turkey runs military operations in Iraqi territory with impunity. Iran’s influence seems to grow daily, from restricting Iraq’s access to water and electricity to promoting sectarianism at every level of Iraqi politics and law enforcement.

Could anything good for Iraq come of re-instating the dinar while the country is in such chaos?

2021-07-01

This opinion piece, “Biden can checkmate Iranian influence in Iraq“, discusses water+electricity as well as Kadhimi’s apparent pivot toward Iran in the context of the tense relationship between Iraqi and Iranian Shi’ites. It concludes:

Perhaps it is time to recognize that the key to delegitimizing and defeating Iran’s militias in Iraq is through not only symbolic airstrikes but also providing what Tehran cannot. It is time to transfer to Basra the emergency generators Iraq’s second-largest city needs to survive, each one emblazoned with the American flag. It is time to remind Iraqis in their hours of need that Washington will stand by them and that, all its rhetoric and sectarian posturing aside, Tehran will not.

Not only do I agree in principle, but such a move would add much-needed positivity to our IQD prospects.

2021-06-30

Obviously, I am a slacker and I have not been posting as I said I would. Let’s be clear: I am not MntGoat. She’s moved off Facebook and a link to her very public new site has been passed around. The original goal of this website is OBE so I will no longer post regular MntGoat updates. Curiously, she didn’t want to use the domain name so I will continue to use it.

Recently there were news reports of US air strikes against “Iranian-backed PMF units” in Iraq near the Syrian border. The US moves were a response to the ongoing and escalating activity of certain aggressive PMF- and Iran-linked units like K’atib Hizbollah. Naturally, the anti-US position is that the US was the aggressor, not acting in self-defense. The Iraqi PM publicly declared that the US action was a violation of Iraqi sovereignty (USA didn’t tell him they were going to drop bombs on Iraq) In contrast, Turkey frequently moves against Kurdish “terrorists” in Iraq, both by air and ground forces, and we rarely hear Iraq condemn these violations of sovereignty. I think events like these — and the responses to them — signal that Iraq cannot stand on its own and that removing “Western” forces is basically a capitulation and invitation to Iran to continue consuming its neighbor. IMHO, this is very bad for our IQD goals.

Drought and water-infrastructure are long-term issues that are coming to a head again. Water issues lead to civil unrest (protests) and demonstrate the corruption and incompetence for which Iraq is justly famous. Drought story. In addition to food and general health and well-being, the water shortage impacts the energy supply. Water/electricity story. Iran has supplied a large portion of Iraq’s electricity for a long time, and they frequently use this leverage to their advantage, usually when it’s most inconvenient for Iraq. Over the years, Iraq’s neighbors have committed BILLIONS of dollars and resources to support Iraqi water and electricity infrastructure plans and projects…and Iraq has squandered every single such opportunity through corruption and incompetence. IMHO, Iraq’s corruption and infrastructure situation plus Iran’s undiminished influence over Iraq do not bode well for our IQD goals.

More soon!

2021-04-19 No News

I have no idea what’s become of MntGoat. She has not updated FB since 3/29. In the next few days I’ll put some material together to share what I’m reading and put it into context. It’ll be a poor substitute for a MntGoat post but I sense there is a great need and desire for dinar Truth.

In the meantime, please keep our dear friend and mentor in your prayers. MntGoat has given a great deal to our community, I submit that a moment of genuine prayer on her behalf is a small thing to ask in comparison.