Drowning in Dinars by Jason Williams (NYT), a fascinating tale of paper money, buried treasure, and bureaucratic incompetence: “It appeared as if the [Central] bank had taken a direct hit during the war. Charred Iraqi dinars were scattered on the ground like autumn leaves. Twisted metal blocked the stairwells. Picking our way through the debris, we and the investigators headed for the vaults. But instead of just the massive steel safes we’d been expecting, we encountered another formidable barrier: a flood. It was impossible to tell where the water was coming from, or how to turn it off. Needless to say, the vaults didn’t house just the treasures of Nimrud, they also contained billions of dinars and millions upon millions of American dollars. Still, the Office of the Coalition Provisional Authority — then under the leadership of Jay Garner — did not seem to be doing anything to stop the flooding, though it was certainly aware of the situation. (I ran into an Army Corps of Engineers officer checking out the flood, but he told me that he was just sightseeing.) All this was taking place at a time when people weren’t getting paid because there weren’t enough dinars in circulation.”
Mugabe’s Inflation Rate Calculated at 365% (FinTimes): “Fresh evidence that Zimbabwe’s economic crisis is running out of control came on Wedneday as inflation surged to 365.4 per cent in June from 300 per cent in May.” [Thanks PrudentBear.com]
Email Filters Prove Big Business (Wash Times): “Companies selling antispam products are posting soaring revenues as they try to keep up with an enormous increase in unsolicited e-mail.”
Greenspan See Danger in Deficits (Washington Post), even though the Fed makes them possible to begin with: “Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned yesterday that continuing large federal budget deficits eventually would cause long-term interest rates to rise and damage U.S. economic growth.”
Iraq Rebuilding Could Cost $90 billion (BBC): “The investment, which would focus on re-building infrastructure, will take a decade, said Achmed al-Shahrabani, who is leading a special Iraq initiative by management consultants McKinsey. “
