Al-Badri: America is using pressure cards to maintain the presence of its forces in Iraq
Political analyst Saeed Al-Badri said on Monday that Washington continues to use pressure cards against Baghdad in order to perpetuate the presence of its forces inside Iraq and the region.
Al-Badri told Al-Maalouma, “The American administration has no seriousness in removing its forces from Iraq, as it is using pressure cards in order to perpetuate the presence of its forces in Iraqi camps and lands.”
He added, "The government's position must be clear by dropping the pressure cards used by the American administration."
He stated that "the presence of American forces inside Iraq raises concern, and is considered a destabilizing factor for the entire region." link
I do feel comfortable saying it has started…we are seeing movement…My understanding may be a little off as to how they are executing it...It’s been pretty quiet from Iraq sources over the weekend. They seem to finish things first over there and then tell us.
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Question: Is it necessary for Iraq to publish the rate in the budget before we make appointments? MarkZ: I do not think it’s necessary. I believe they will try to keep the rate private as long as possible like what they did with Kuwait.
Question: I saw that Iraq has holidays coming up. Would this slow them down releasing the rates? MarkZ: Everytime we have looked in the past we saw Kuwait revalued during Ramadan…. Iraq revalued in the early 70’s during a holiday. I wouldn’t be too worried about those things.
It certainly appears to be the “Perfect Storm” right now...
[Referencing Mike Bara post below, 6-14-2024]Revaluating? I thought this was important...I had sat down with some bankers who wanted to run through scenarios with me and my currency and train some people. And that was the exact term they used in banking then. It is going to revaluate…Its revaluating. That is the terms the banks use. They do not say RV or that it’s going to revalue. Its revaluating.
So, I decided to ask my CBI contact on my Wednesday call to Iraq and I was told that YES, the dinar will be backed by gold.
Or more like they told me it is being NOW being backed by gold.
It is a process to get there.
They are moving quickly in this process.
Then because of a negative article this period on this subject of gold, of citizens purchasing gold and keeping this money out of the banking system, I asked if this was harmful and could it negatively impact their effort to revive the banking sector.
I was told it was not an major issue as they are tracking the notes and dollars as they are used to buy gold.
To buy large sums of gold they must go to special dealer that is registered to sell.
Petty jewelry sales will not impact.
They are watching large buyers.
Also I was told that they may place a limit on personal gold possessions.
This also by itself confirms that the dinar is going to be backed by gold soon.
What else is of importance in the news?
Stock exchange and Securities
Today, Wednesday, the Iraqi Securities Commission announced the signing of an agreement with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), affiliated with the World Bank.
Al-Youm Al-Akhbariya said and I quote-“We continue our efforts aimed at incorporating good international practices in developing the performance and effectiveness of the Iraq Stock Exchange and other activities related to securities.”
Just read the Pillars of Financial Reform.
Here we go again more of it.
They are attacking all these sectors.
Diversification of Revenues
Specialists in economic affairs called for the necessity of working to enhance non-oil revenues and reduce dependence on oil in a manner consistent with economic reforms.
The specialist in economic affairs, Dr. Ahmed Al-Rawi, explained oil because of its international and strategic importance, oil is considered a causal commodity.”
For economic activity or even influencing political decisions it has become necessary to take practical measures regarding reconsidering revenues away from rentier expectations of oil alone and raising all forms of unnecessary revenues for public expenditures.
Activating non-oil revenue systems, such as the system of taxes and public fees, and revitalizing economic sectors so that the economy becomes capable of providing revenues for the budget as job opportunities for the young workforce and diversifying incomes, as well as developing nonoil production.
Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) an unusual idea?
Then also in the news the economic and financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Saleh, proposed an “unusual” idea to establish a sovereign wealth fund.
Whoever wrote this article is not telling the entire story.
Just months ago, we read an article telling us this was the plan.
So, the plan to establish the fund is not new and is already in the making.
Why will this fund be so important to Iraq?
Saleh said {to Al-Furat News} that: “The SWF sovereign wealth funds, which Kuwait started with the Generations Fund since the 1950s, were followed by surplus countries exporting raw materials in general and oil in particular, on the basis of diversifying the investment of those financial surpluses in financial and real investment opportunities in major economies.”
Outside their countries through a fund called the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) whose function is to manage the investment of surpluses in financial and real assets outside their countries, and the reason is due to an issue called “weak absorption capacity.”
He explained, “that is, the weakness of the ability to convert those surplus savings from revenues from exporting natural resources into investments within the state itself due to many internal structural factors.
Those revenues from exports are immediately invested in operations within the economy, noting that those surpluses are capital assets that can be reinvested and generate value-added chains that multiply the national income of their countries many times over.
So, in other words what Saleh proposed in establishing the SWF is to invest the surplus revenues and not just piss them away on projects.
Instead, if you invest this revenue you can multiply the money many times over and then just draw from the fund to meet deficits when needed.
The principle in the fund always exists and is there also in times of dire emergencies.
Unlike the CBI reserves that are mandated by the IMF to cover the government expenses in time of emergencies, the SWF is more flexible and gives an additional pad of money for stability and security. This fund will also cut down the reliance on oil revenue and help them move more quickly out of the rentier economy WOW!
Is the parallel market now under control?
In recent news I showed you articles on the departure of the UNAMI mission from Iraq.
They told us it would not fully conclude until the end of 2025.
But already just the news of it gave a feeling of relief and renewal that Baghdad will emerge from international guardianship, and this strengthened the confidence in the Iraqi dinar.
It’s called “perception”.
Investors invest on perception and research for their speculative investments.
In addition to the policies of the Central Bank having an impact too on the dinar, but the dollar will remain within a safe range from the dinar.
There will be some difficult changes that that Iraq must go through in the coming months but the groundwork has been laid.
It was pointed out in the article, and I quote from it – “that Iraq is currently led by a services government and it seeks, according to economic paths, to build paths that contribute to financial stability in the private sector,” noting that “parallel market prices are not worrying, and their variables will remain within a slight range.”
To me this sounds like they have the parallel market under control and that is what matters.
Yes, we still see fluctuations but what is the average that matters.
Is it now stable for the most part?
The CBI tells us it is.
Yes, “the writing is on the wall” now as this is the BEST news of this period as observers and specialists in political affairs expressed their optimism about Iraq’s exit from the list of “high-risk countries” that was officially announced by the FATF last week.
I quote from the article – “noting that the international declaration represents an important step in the correct path that the Sudanese government is taking in achieving reforms.
Financial and economic along with political stability.”
Iraq’s exit from the list of high-risk countries could not get any better.
They are slowly clearing the way to the reinstatement, one obstacle at a time.
They were not about to release the currency back to FOREX with this in place.
Just look at all the progress made just since December 2022 when Iraq announced they were finally entirely out of Chapter VII.
And now the spigot is wide open the final issues preventing the reinstatement are being dealt with one by one.
Whilst my contact in the CBI told me there is a very high probability that we would see the currency swap out in this month of June and so we watch and wait.
While there are numerous different assets, property issues, and operating equipment that
require surety protection that falls under the category of insurance, a primary commodity being
the individual’s life itself. What such a life insurance contract is designed to do is replace lost
income and the asset accumulation which would have resulted if one’s life had not been
interrupted by a premature death. It is further designed to provide a revenue stream and lump
sum benefit for those loved ones left behind without the time requirement necessary to havereached those goals that time may have allowed.
How many readings this should we exchange will not have that one major problem of not havinghad time to accumulate the wealth needed to reach one's goals but that does not mean aproperly structured insurance portfolio cannot benefit a person with unlimited wealth once they understand the self-banking concept that can be achieved utilizing cash value whole life insurance.
Whatever one owns directly is subject to the Unified Estate and Gift Tax Tables including personallife insurance contracts. Therefore, the values of a death benefit are includible in figuring any estate taxes which may be due on death or includible in the estate of the second to die if amarried person leaves a death benefit to a surviving spouse. Further items revolve around whether you live in a Community Property state of which there are nine, or in a Common Law
state.
Now if one is wealthy who creates trusts, Living Trusts, Family Trusts, or Foundations and assigns existing life contracts making the entity the owner and beneficiary of the death benefit that value has now been removed from the value of the insured's estate as the insured is no longer the owner. Similar provisions to the beneficiary designations in the life policy can be structured into the trust so the values still reach the initial beneficiary.
The information contained in this document are for educational purposes only.
Now the true value to what can be accomplished having your Trust purchase cash value insurance on you the Grantor of the trust besides how very important you are to the continued operation
and direction and the overall successful continuation of this endeavor; is how you can use non-callable loans at very attractive interest rates to further the desired results of this Trust or Foundation for the betterment of mankind.
Permanent or Whole Life Insurance contracts are traditionally more expensive that Term Life contracts and starting in the mid to late sixties the phrase Buy Term and Invest the Difference became a huge marketing surge, The primary reason behind the cost differential was the fact that whole life contracts have a forced savings plan known as Cash Values.
The other difference is these cash value policies have a floor or guaranteed rate of return on these cash values and depending on a multiple of factors, current investment return, mortality factors, and the mortality tables the company is using, the interest rate could range from as low as 3% up to 5.5% also using a participating vs a non-participating policy.
There are also Mutual Companies vs Stock Companies which directly affect your Dividend Participation percentage.
Dividends are higher in Mutual Carriers vs Stock Carriers. Whole Life policies also have a feature known as Paid Up Additions meaning you can effectively buy these additions and thereby be capable of adding additional cash reserves to your contract over and above the basic contracts stated tables. One of the most critical provisions is that you must make a minimum of 4 out of the first 7 years premium payments with new money to avoid the policy being converted from
Whole Life to a Modified Endowment Contract which has adverse tax consequences.
The really valuable provision of these type contracts in the event that your named beneficiary does not receive a death benefit check is they have very attractive loan provisions at very low interest rates considering what banks loan money for today, but they also continue to pay the guaranteed or floor interest rate on the cash values including any loaned amount. What does this mean to you?
Using Insurance policies as your own banker let us review what some terms mean:
DEATH BENEFIT: The Face Value minus any outstanding loans paid to any named beneficiary(s)
upon proper proof of death of the insured.
CASH SURRENDER VALUE: The net value the policy owner would realize were the contract to be
surrendered prior to the death of the insured minus any outstanding loans.
LOAN INTEREST RATE: The maximum interest rates the company can charge for any policy loan
can never exceed ½ of 1 percent above the guaranteed policy base earnings, i.e., if the base
The information contained in this document are for educational purposes only.
earnings are 4.5% the maximum charge for any loan against the cash value reserves would be
5%.
The company will only loan up to 98% of the current cash surrender values of the accumulated
cash values plus paid-up additions of the stated death benefit face amount to insure the non-
callable provisions of the policy contract remain in effect.
There is no loan repayment period of principal as long as the annual interest expense is current and paid in advance on each successive anniversary of loan renewal.
There are more items discussed in the links below. What does this mean in real terms to anyone using this concept?
• Assumptions you wish to purchase a new vehicle for $22,000.00.
• The local bank is willing to make you a loan for the current auto loan rate of 11%.
• So 22k @ 11% = $2420.00 / year for 3 years or a total interest expense of $7,260.00.
Now assuming you have a policy with enough cash values to match the above illustration here is the difference to acquire the same automobile.
• $22,000.00 @ 5% interest = $1,100.00 offset by guaranteed earnings on cash value of 4.5% = $990.00 or actual loan expense of $110.00 per year over 3 years or a net cost to
use the funds of $330.00.
• Your gain being the difference between $7,260.00 and $330.00 or a savings of $6,930.00 in out-of-pocket cost to use your banker vs establishing your own bank.
The smart investor recognizes that a new vehicle will be on the horizon every 3 years, so you do in fact set up a loan repayment plan recognizing with every payment made your loan expense reduces and you’re earning on cash value reserves increases thereby making the true cost even
less than the above illustration. Think about college education costs for the grand kids or any number of applications to this concept or read more about it below.
