On Jul 3, 2007, at 9:35 AM, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
> No, not by the standard of the South.
>
> If you doubt it, look at, for instance, Iran's neighbor Pakistan,
The Pakistani regime doesn't pretend to be populist or redistributionist or even democratic, nor does it have foreign cheerleaders claims such on their behalf.
Subsidizing gasoline when you have little domestic refining capacity is a rather stupid economic strategy. Promising things you can't possibly deliver on - like cheaper housing in four or five months - is a rather stupid political strategy. And while I think Iran has every right to a nuclear weapon, it may not be the wisest way to spend limited resources; certainly most of the Iranian leftists I've interviewed agree.
You argue that recent inflation isn't so bad in Iran. Well, the latest figure the IMF reports in International Financial Statistics is for Oct 2006, and that was 15.1%, above the 2000-2006 average of 13.8%. Press accounts have it rising since, no?
Doug