Here's a story I'll bet you never expected to see on Al Jazeera

Once again I'll make the point that it's critical not to get all your world news from Western sources.

If Al Jazeera is today running this story, entitled IMF says Iraq Economy to Boom, what kind of tectonic shift does that portray in the so-called moderate Muslim world?

Iraq's economy is expected to boom in the coming year, despite political and security problems, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says.

Economic reforms, such as strengthening the central bank, curbing inflation and restructuring two large public funds had contributed to the progress, the IMF said on Wednesday.
Mohsin Khan, director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia department, said: "There was an improvement in economic activity" in the second half of the year.

He said Iraqi gross domestic product (GDP) will see a seven per cent growth in 2009.
The fund expects a "significant jump in growth" as oil production increases and retail services improve.

However, Iraq, which is struggling to recover after a US-led invasion nearly five years ago, "will continue to need aid, particularly in the security area", Khan said.

Oil wealth

Oil production accounts for 70 per cent of the country's GDP activity.

The IMF predicts that Iraq will produce an extra 200,000 barrels per day in 2008, bringing the country’s daily output to 2.2 million barrels.

Iraq's economy
- 7% predicted growth in Iraq's gross domestic product (GDP)

- Annual consumer prices inflation expected to decline to 12%.

- Extra 200,000 barrels of oil production predicted per day.

- Oil accounts for 70% of Iraq's GDP.

- Predictions based on oil priced at $55-57 per barrel.

Surging oil prices have recently boosted Iraq's oil revenues to $27bn, $6bn higher than projected.

The IMF approved a $744m credit for Iraq on December 19, just a week after the country paid off an earlier $471m loan.

Foreign exchange reserves ballooned to $27bn at the end of 2007 from $20bn the prior year.

The IMF's 2008 programme for Iraq is based on oil priced at $55-57 a barrel.

John Foster, deputy editor of Dubai-based Banker Middle East, told Al Jazeera that the Iraqi economy has gone from zero to growth.

"Before the invasion corruption was endemic. After the invasion basically they had a blank sheet. With the removal of sanctions, the oil started flowing and thats been powering Iraqi economy."

"They are trying to grow small-to-medium sized enterprises which are run by local Iraqi people," Foster said.

A Libertarian Martin Luther King Jr. Day post

In which we travel into interesting waters . . . (for a fairly long trip, so be prepared) Dr. King's 1968 book, Where do we go from here: chaos or community? , is profound in that it criticizes anti-poverty programs for their piecemeal approach, as John Schlosberg of the Center for a Stateless Society [C4SS] observes: King noted that the antipoverty programs of the time “proceeded from a premise that poverty is a consequence of multiple evils,” with separate programs each dedicated to individual issues such as education and housing. Though in his view “none of these remedies in itself is unsound,” they “all have a fatal disadvantage” of being “piecemeal,” with their implementation having “fluctuated at the whims of legislative bodies” or been “entangled in bureaucratic stalling.” The result is that “fragmentary and spasmodic reforms have failed to reach down to the profoundest needs of the poor.” Such single-issue approaches also have “another common failing — ...

More of This, Please

Or perhaps I should say, "Less of this one, please." Or how about just, "None of them. Ever again. Please....For the Love of God." Sunshine State Poll: Grayson In Trouble The latest Sunshine State/VSS poll shows controversial Democratic incumbent Alan Grayson trailing former state Senator Dan Webster by seven points, 43 percent to 36 percent. A majority of respondents -- 51 percent -- disapprove of the job that Grayson is doing. Independents have an unfavorable view of him as well, by a 36/47 margin. Grayson has ignored the conventional wisdom that a freshman should be a quiet member who carefully tends to the home fires. The latest controversy involves his " Taliban Dan " advertisement, where he explicitly compares his opponent to the Taliban, and shows a clip of Webster paraphrasing Ephesians 5:22 -- "wives, submit to your husbands." An unedited version of the clip shows that Webster was actually suggesting that husba...

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

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