Reply #4: This is distortion: "Ahmadinejad’s economic policies are to the right

[Hannah Bell]

of the IMF: cutting subsidies in a radical way, more privatization than any other post-79 government (by selling the country to the Revolutionary Guards)"


Before the recent troubles, what I'd read was:

-ahmadinejad was the author of heavy subsidies to the poor & the rural;

-recent proposed cutbacks come under pressure from other entities demanding same due to decline in oil revenues, not ahmadinejad's desire;

- ahmadinejad's base in the rev guard gets rewarded with control of selected industries as counterweight to the mullahs who have same (& would prefer to have more...)


Mousavi's platform is the same removal of subsidies, plus more opening to foreign investment. Mousavi's support = urban, business class, portion of the mullahs...ahmadinejad's = rural, poor & working class, military & portion of mullahs...as a generalization...

sure, bush loved hmadinejad's policy so much, that's why he budgeted more money to overthrow him...

it's a question of who gets the graft & how much foreign capital is allowed in, that's all.