Thread: All Guys in Iraq report on availability

Hello Everyone. The intention of this thread was to provide a space for those who have information about whats going on on the ground in terms of availablilty, rumors, costs etc. I think we are getting off track. Lets allow those who have fought the war and who are there to post on what they are seeing, hearing etc. I realize that the those who have posted the last few posts have extensive macroeconomic expertize, but maybe their posts are better left somewhere else. Thank You.

Originally Posted by TerryTate

Yes, I can see that you don't Elfwizard, so let me try to explain it another way....

If a commodity has value then it is worth more right? If it is worth more then it is harder to obtain, right? If there is an abundance of Dollars available then that implies that the Dollars aren't valued as much as people are dumping them.

Don't confuse the availability of Dollars with Dollars being used as medium of exchange. It may strictly be a currency exchange and not a purchase of goods scenario. The Haji mart having Dollars to sell doesn't always equate to Dollars being used for purchases by the locals. Dollars may be used for purchases, but as the Haji mart is usually a black market currency dealing outlet it appears that the locals are selling the Dollar to the Haji Mart or as you suggest exchanging the Dollar for goods, but it appears the locals are not trying to get Dollars back, which is the point here. So, this leads to an abundance of Dollars available on the black market. And a demand by the locals for Dinar.

If the Dollar were the currency of choice then the locals would be demanding dollars back from the Haji mart and thus there would not be an abundance of Dollars on the black market (i.e. Haji mart).

Sorry if that seems convoluted, but let me try to explain it this way. If I had 2 tons of gold in my basement and the value of gold started to drop relative to the dollar with no end in sight, what would I do? Would I sit on the gold, or would I try to move to a higher value commodity? I would sell the gold. Now if everyone dumps said gold at the same time, does that make gold the dominant commodity (i.e. currency)? No, that makes Gold the commodity that everyone is trying to get out of. So, even though Gold is being used in large quantities at that moment Gold would be the least desired commodity. What makes a currency or commodity the asset of choice (i.e. dominant currency) is the desire by the community to have it, not the desire to get rid of it.

Hope that helps, and I hope this trend continues in Iraq....

Thanks Terry good explanation. Just because the Haji mart has lots of dollars doesn't mean they're selling any.

I just got back home from Dubai. The Iraqi Dinar there is selling for $883 per Million. They had one million on hand and said they could get more if I wanted it.

Originally Posted by heavyjetpfe

I just got back home from Dubai. The Iraqi Dinar there is selling for $883 per Million. They had one million on hand and said they could get more if I wanted it.

Thanks for the info heavy! So there's no shortage of dinars. In other words no drying up and no feeding frenzy.

a buddy of mine on the ground there said they're only giving limited amounts to people due to shortages of printed money, i had home go ask for me since he is there cause he can send me money :), but he said that he couldn't get large amounts, and that you had to purchase them out of a book or something like that it was a really weird email but they do seem to be having sortages of currency for the people on the ground in some parts anyways.