Free Republic

A new and potentially significant source of demand is that of demand from Iran. Iran imported a massive $1.2 billion worth of precious metals from Turkey in April alone. Turkish exports of gold, precious metals, pearls and coins to Iran rose to $1.2 billion in April from a tiny $7,500 a year earlier, according to figures released by the state statistics institute in Ankara yesterday. This is a massive increase in demand and suggests that there may be official involvement in the imports from the Central Bank of Iran. This trend continued in May when Turkish gold imports leapt by...

More money to the people. According to a recent paper published last November by Dow Jones (don't have a link, read a summary on paper) after the world economic forum in the dead sea, Iraq's income from oil exports for this year was at 35 billion dollars with a 14.3% increase from last year's total. And that if oil export levels retain the current level and under stable prices, the coming year will witness a record income that was never reached in the history of modern Iraq and revenues will jump up to 40 billion dollars; a huge figure given...

What can keep Russia from growing? 1. Soviet-era bureaucracy 2. Outdated industry 3. Poor investment climate 4. Retailing is booming, but other businesses lag. 5. Millions of Russians are at risk of being left behind. What will keep Russia growing? 1. Russia will depend on its oil revenues for the forseeable future. Question: Will oil revenues generate enough income that can be equitably distributed to the point that it will overcome the barriers to growth? What do you think?

UNITED NATIONS -- Iraq wants the United Nations to lift all sanctions and stop using the country's oil revenue to pay compensation to victims of the 1991 Gulf War and the salaries of U.N. weapons inspectors, Iraq's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday. Ambassador Samir Sumaidaie called sanctions "anachronistic and inappropriate" and said it's time for the Security Council to recognize that Iraq is a "much more internationally friendly" country that wants to be at peace with its neighbors. No longer needed, he said, was the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, which was responsible for dismantling Iraqi programs to build chemical...

<p>BATON ROUGE - Walk through any university campus in the state and you'll notice beautiful scenery and historic buildings.</p> <p>Look closer, especially at some student residence halls, and you'll see peeling paint, leaky windows, moldy corners and some pretty rough bathroom facilities.</p>