Do they know something in Iraq that we don't?

By Greg Richards

Here is a chart on the Iraqi dinar taken from the safedinar.com website. The time scale is January 24, 2004 - December 24, 2006. What the chart says is that the Iraqi dinar has increased in value on the market by 9% from August 24, 2006 to December 24, 2006 and is now at an all-time high (this is the "new" Iraqi dinar introduced in October 2003). This appears to be a pretty impressive increase in value for the Iraqi dinar, particularly given the despair we read in the press. Whether or not it is conclusive, it is likely an important tile in the mosaic that makes up the picture of Iraq.

Data is also available at the website for the Bank of Iraq. The data given by the Bank of Iraq is the inverse of the data in this graph. This graph shows the amount of US dollars per million Iraqi dinars. The Bank of Iraq lists the number of Iraqi dinars to the US dollar. On December 24, 2006, this figure was 1,352. If you divide 1,000,000 by 1,352, you get $740, as shown here.