Nick Fountain

But there is a difference lately, partly because the economic situation has gotten so grim, which is particularly demoralizing for young people.

Hello and welcome to Planet Money.

I'm Nick Fountain.

The protests in Iran are about so many things.

The biggest things.

Human rights, women's rights, anti-corruption, freedom.

But this time, they are also motivated by economic hardship caused, in part, by U.S.

sanctions.

Today on the show, what were those sanctions?

What do they do to Iran's economy?

And what has been the result?

But as a tool, most experts will tell you they only work some of the time.

Like when communication is really good, the goal's really narrowly defined, and the targeted country isn't too big or too well integrated into the global economy.

International economic sanctions upon Iran.

To understand how all those sanctions fed into this moment, a bigger than ever protest, a violent crackdown, and the U.S.

threatening an attack, we're going to look at three key moments in Iran's economic history.

And the history of U.S.

sanctions.

Three moments that help explain how we got here.

Iva Leila's dad had been the head of research at the Central Bank of Iran under the Shah, a very, very U.S.-friendly monarch.