A country [Iraq] that just ordered 7.5 billion new notes has stopped dispensing the old ones…Here’s how an exchange actually works… An exchange works by making the old paper unusable and the new paper worth walking in for. The state controls the first half with deadlines and rationing. You’re watching that half run now – [atm] machines capped, [payment] trucks stopped, salaries rerouted [to electronic rails]. The second half arrives as a single announcement. Between the two halves sits nothing but silence from the [central] bank. That silence is what this week sounds like.
