David McCloskey

I mean, Kareem Sajadpour in that article makes the point that in American politics, inflation rates of over 3% will tend to bring down administrations.

And Iran's inflation rates, which are more than 50%, Gordon, across the board, and over 70% for food, which is an insane, insane number.

I mean, over the last year alone,

The rial has fallen more than 80% relative to the US dollar.

So it's a complete evaporation of the wealth and purchasing power of the Iranian people for just basic foodstuffs.

I mean, in Iran, a liter of milk is around 20,000 rials, right?

So it's just, I think...

On top of the inflation also, you just have this systemic problem of corruption, economic mismanagement, brain drain.

And given that the price of oil is not in a great spot, I think it's down over...

20% or something like that over the past year.

The Iranians, you have a lower price, but then also because of the sanctions, Iran has been forced to sell its oil to China and it does so at sort of absolutely cut rate prices.

So the state's coffers are not filling as they have in years past.

I would agree.

And Kareem Sajidpour and Jack Gold started that article.

One of their contacts was a political science professor based in Tehran who had this great quote, which I think sums it up perfectly, which is, at the beginning of the revolution, the regime was 80% ideologues and 20% charlatans, right?

So there was a real ideological component to involvement in the revolution in 79.

And that professor said today it's the reverse.

So we've got 80% charlatans, people who are out to make money and hold positions of power, and then 20% who care about the ideology.

So I think there's a sense that the ideological underpinnings of the entire system are very weak right now.

And then I think the last pillar, Gordon, the kind of foreign environment, it hasn't been a great couple of years for Iran in the region, I would say.