If It's Money For Nothing, Are the Chicks Still Free?
A friend of mine recently told me about a long-term investment
offer he discovered on the Internet. Now, the theory behind this
was sound, change a few hundred bucks into Iraqi Dinah's (for
which you get 2,500 to the pound). Wait until the war is over in
Iraq and the country sorts itself out then change the money back
with a few thousand percent profits.
When enquiring about IQD's, anyone selling them is likely to
quote the 1982 value of 3 US Dollars to the IQD as proof of
Iraqs haylcon economical stability. But, the fact of the matter
is that this rate was set by Saddam and was never traded openly
on the world market. These days, the IQD is not used for any
significant transactions and the total amount of business
conducted through Iraq's national bank equates to thousands of
Dollars making the Dinah pretty insignificant. Also, the ICQ is
not traded on the FEX market and can only be bought legitimately
from Iraq.
All this aside, the theory still works provided Iraq can sort
themselves out economically at some point in the future. The
dudes running these 'unique investment opportunities', love to
quote the recovery of Kuwait's economy after the Gulf war.
However, it is important to note that before the war Kuwait had
a stable government and generated more of its income through
foreign investments than oil. The war resulted in them losing
100 billion dollars in investment, but despite this the value of
their currency increased thanks to a stable government, solvent
economy and intact infrastructure. Now lets look at modern day
Iraq, which has no stable government, little or no
infrastructure, and no foreign income apart from its oil.
Additionally, Iraq had entered the war with $125 billion USD
debt.
Being a humble cave dwelling being, I'm not trying to suggest
how you should or should not invest your money. I'd like to
think that 30 years down the line Iraq can sort themselves out,
but presently the fact is that as a country Iraq makes less
money than a British fish and chip shop. Even if you love
betting on long shots I suggest you find out as much as you can
about this malarkey so this is good place to start:
http://www.xe.com/iqd.htm
Anyway, that's all for now. If you liked this article, or have
anything you'd like to see on DWB please feel free to leave a
comment and I'll see what I can do.
Take it easy
DWB.