I share Andy’s fear that Iran turned some kind of dark corner with the ascent of Ahmadi-Nejad.
As an old Wall Street worker-bee, this one got my particular attention:
“Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the latest cabinet meeting in the Iranian capital that ‘if we were permitted to hang two or three persons, the problems with the stock exchange would be solved for ever’, according to a Tehran-based newspaper. Ahmadinejad was addressing a cabinet meeting held to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation at the Tehran Stock Exchange, the daily Ruznet reported on Sunday.”
That is Hitler-Stalin stuff. If these radicals are as securely in control as they appear to be (who knows?) things could get much worse real fast — for the Iranians first, then for us. We may be witnessing a phase change here, a discontinuity. Cross your fingers.