reset:

The HCL…splits oil revenue between Baghdad and Erbil. That split has been the missing piece for years. Lock the split, and Iraq’s books become predictable. Predictable books unlock the global lenders. […]

The Sin Dialogue Forum opens with one speaker…al-Alaq told the room cash imports of US dollars into Iraq have been cut from 14 billion to 4 billion. He said roughly 95 […]

Saturday at the Sin Dialogue Forum in Baghdad. The governor of Iraq’s central bank, Ali al-Alaq, told a room of decision-makers one phrase. “We are working quietly.” …Here is what the […]

May 27 Iraq votes on the cabinet that decides if the rate moves. The Minister of Finance controls Iraq’s budget and where oil revenue goes. Iran-aligned blocs holding that chair means […]

al-Zaidi was nominated on April 27 by the Coordination Framework. He is the Prime Minister-designate, not the confirmed Prime Minister. The cabinet vote is May 27, and he needs 167 […]

No confirmed PM, no HCL shepherd. No HCL, no rate, no RV…Iraq is assembling the political end. The US is assembling the financial end. Cabinet by May 27 unlocks HCL. […]

President Donald Trump ordered the United States naval blockade of Iranian ports to long-term…Brent crude touched $126 intraday Thursday, more than 12 percent above where it opened the week. Hormuz […]

Baghdad’s reading is not Washington’s. The Coordination Framework picked a businessman…He has never held public office. He has never run for one…Iraqi-press channels…are reading the pick as the coalition buying […]

Two paths from here: ⑴  al-Zaidi shields his old bank to keep the parallel route open. The peg holds, Treasury escalates the next bank. ⑵  al-Zaidi cuts Al-Janoob to clear his name […]

al-Zaidi prime-minister-designate of Iraq…chairs Al-Janoob Islamic Bank for Investment and Finance.  The same bank the Central Bank of Iraq pulled from the daily dollar auction February 4 2024…Reason cited: dollar smuggling […]

Monday morning Iraq woke up outside its constitutional window. The Article 76 shot clock ran out the night before. The Coordination Framework’s consensus name, Iraqi Intelligence chief Hamid al-Shatri, was […]

On Thursday in Baghdad, parliament extended its own term by 30 days.  Surprise level = zero.  Every Iraqi cabinet formation since 2005 has missed its constitutional clock. The 2018 cycle ran […]

Parliament backed the Central Bank’s monetary independence as a principle. That is a different question from what the banks think of the man in the governor’s seat. On the same […]

Al-Alaq’s public statement is that the Central Bank of Iraq is constantly reviewing the deletion of the zeros from the dinar. Ground sources report that the banking sector has lost patience […]

Al-Alaq’s desk is still the place the rate-release decision lands. The parliament speaker aligning with the central bank on independence of monetary policy while the sector publicly loses patience with […]

Ground sources describe Iraqi state television running a twenty-five thousand to twenty-five note zero-cut graphic as commercial content this weekend, with tweezers lifting the zeros from the scale on the […]

Friday afternoon in Washington, Treasury sanctioned seven Iraqi militia commanders under the fifth consecutive business day of Economic Fury.  Four organizations named… Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent closed the statement in […]

The annual budget framework that enables a new exchange rate is being prepared. 

On April 16, Iraq’s central bank quietly bound fifteen Islamic banks to an international compliance standard. The same afternoon, parliament walked into the governor’s office and publicly backed monetary independence. […]

The Saturday [the 26th] fuse is not about who sits in the chair. It is about what the chair activates. President to prime minister to cabinet to budget to HCL […]

Iraq is doing something different.  Iraq isn’t restructuring its currency just to make the numbers smaller.  It’s building the infrastructure to increase purchasing power.  The redenomination restructures the notes, but the revaluation sets […]

The 15-Day Fuse…started the constitutional countdown on April 11 when President Nizar Amedi took the oath. Article 76 gives the new president fifteen days to task the largest bloc’s nominee […]

Three days after the oath and with the fifteen-day clock still ticking, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani signed off on the Ernst and Young contract that puts Iraq’s two state banks under international […]

Twenty-two Iraqi banks cut from the dollar system since 2023.  Al-Huda Bank designated for laundering six billion dollars through the CBI dollar auction for the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps].  […]