Information on Iran’s economic degringolade can be found here: “Iran’s Deepening Water Crisis Threatens 35 Million as Economy Buckles Under US Pressure, Mounting Domestic Strain,” by Ailin Vilches Arguello, Algemeiner, May 11, 2026:
Soaring costs and crumbling infrastructure have also forced businesses to cut jobs on a massive scale, leaving many workers unemployed and intensifying social and economic pressures across the country, The New York Times reported….
If 19 major dams are no longer operating because of the dried-up reservoirs, it means a steep decline in hydroelectric power. Many factories cannot function without it. And where there is still such power, the costs have soared because of its scarcity. Years of mismanagement, including massive investments in weapons instead of infrastructure, have also led business es of all kinds to close. And that leads inexorably to a rise in unemployment.
90% of the oil Iran sells is exported through its ports on the Persian Gulf. But the American blockade now blocks all of these. And so are other exports. No exports, no money. No money, no way for Iranian businesses to sell goods abroad, or to the government in Tehran now strapped for cash. Nor can the Iranian people, with unemployment rising and more than 50% of them now living below the poverty line, buy the goods that Iranian manufacturers have for sale.
With factories shutting down because of both the high cost of energy, the inability to export because of the American blockade of Iran’s ports, and the drop in demand from the domestic market because of the increased rate of poverty, even those companies still operating have had to reduce their production, leading to mass layoffs that, in turn, lead to a lowering of tax revenues, and Iran’s government has ever less money to rescue the tottering economy.
Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has attempted to contain the fallout by urging companies to avoid layoffs “to the extent possible.”
No company is going to keep paying employees who are no longer needed, not even a company that a man whose son-in-law is in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps owns. It’s strictly business. Keep them employed “to the extent possible,” says whoever is pretending this week to be Mojtaba Khamenei.
Sorry, say the business owners, no can do.
But the regime’s internet shutdown alone has cost businesses and companies an estimated $80 million in daily losses, The New York Times reported….
That’s a high price to pay for trying to keep Iranians from finding out about what’s going on in their country and around the world, especially since so many of them have, by paying a pretty penny, managed to circumvent the prohibition — some by buying a Starlink device, some by other means that need not be discussed here — and get access to the internet.
In 1979, when Ayatollah Khomeini first came to power, there were 71 Iranian rials to the dollar. Today, there are 1.8 million rials to the dollar. In Iran, no one wants to use the country’s collapsing currency. Businesses refuse to accept them. It’s a potent daily reminder of the country’s impoverishment.
The American blockade of Iran’s ports has prevented 90% of Iranian oil exports from leaving Iran. Millions of barrels of oil are being kept in tankers in port and storage facilities on land, but soon they will all fill up. Iran could cut off production, but if it does that, when the production begins again there will be all sorts of problems. These include reservoir damage, mechanical failure, and the technical challenges involved in starting it up again after it is stopped.
In a matter of just a few months, when all the oil storage capacity has disappeared, Iran will face a difficult decision. Should it keep wells producing, possibly at greatly reduced rates, in the face of storage limits, or should it shut wells off completely, and risk causing longterm damage to key oil fields?
Even though Kpler’s report estimates Tehran may not feel the full revenue hit for another three to four months due to payment delays and pre-existing sales flows, the regime is expected to face a heavy blow, with losses potentially reaching $200–250 million per day.
That’s a loss of $8 billion a month, every month, beginning in two or three months. Iran is nearly broke, and the crazed fanatics who run the country are spending what money that they do have mostly on ballistic and cruise missiles, drones, and that expensive nuclear program that they keep afloat. The Iranian people have noticed. Plenty of guns in Iran, but no butter.
And how long will the people of Iran stand for the collapse of their economy and their own impoverishment? Four more months? Five?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Somehow, that has still not triggered a mutiny in either IRGC or Basij or Artesh. Wonder if and when that’ll ever happen?happen to
Hugh Fitzgerald says
There are 90 million people in Iran. The two million who either belong to the IRGC and Basij, or are closely related to its members, are still doing fine. They will either mutiny, or just walk off the job, when they too are affected by the collapsing economy.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Yeah, Hugh, but when? The regime’s cash flow has been frozen, and even Dubai and Doha are no longer laundering their money, after the attacks on their territory. Instead, they have been cooperating w/ Scott Bessant in identifying their accounts to target them
So those 2 million should have been feeling it, and walking off their jobs, in which case, it should be perfectly safe for the remaining 88 million to rebel w/o a fear of major repercussions
David Lakatos says
Good, I hope they dry up and die.
David M says
So is the United States, 39 trillion in debt. The US can’t afford to be the world’s policeman any more.