Barter would make Islamic Iran deliriously happy.
The populace is already living at a subsistence level that AhmadiNejad can sustain through barter. Even employed workers have been searching through garbage bins to find enough food to feed their families. Many have not been paid for months and months.
Nor is there anyone internally who can firmly oppose his (and Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi's) emerging dictatorship backed by the IRGC commanders he has put in place in all serious government positions.
The recent Falcon air crash took out all the top IRGC commanders of the Ground forces, who were virtually Rafsanjanis only available military backing.
The new leadership - unlike the old guard Clerics - has few if any assets worth protecting against international currency crashes.
With substanial oil and natural gas reserves he has "oil barter currency" more than sufficient unto the day.
And finally, as the disruption to most of the rest of the world occurs, he glories in achieving his Hojatieh apocalyptic philosophy, which promotes misery, death and destruction and opposes efforts to prevent it.
May I humbly suggest that doubters about the serious disruption that may happen with the destabilization of the US Dollar through Iranian action and consequently of the Euro and the domino effect that occurs, still think in terms of rational input and global responsibility being shown by all countries.
Instead of a Pol Pot lunacy that may not be powerful enough to do harm on purpose but can create untold damage by entering the game and upsetting long established apple carts. Some of which currently teeter-totter at a point of imbalance where a slight shove can tumble them like a house of cards. Beyond the power of any economy or group of economies to counteract the cataclysm.
I have no personal wealth, nor investments in gold, just an expertise about Iran and a working knowledge of intertwined world economies.
What seems to throw off accurate analysis and assessment is cultural experience, mindsets based purely on Western logic and the recent past. This tends to skew the picture and mislead the analysts as it misses the utterly inconceivable that's now present in the shadows.
Thanks for the ping. Yes the Iran problem is very big, antagonists do challenge the status quo and yes, sometimes analysts are wrong for more reasons than are worth counting. You've painted a clear picture of your perception of Iran but given no indication of how it should be or how to achieve how it should be. What are some of your opinions, analysis and suggestions to resolve the problem?