BGG ~ Well folks... some interesting stuff out there right now...

As I talked about, with the send-off Abadi got at Davos, I had figured this Kuwait Conference wouldn't go quite the way everyone was thinking. I said as much.

There wasn't much in the way of "hand-outs" directly to the government of Iraq. There were some commitments and some direct loans (if they want them).

However, loans will weigh down their future budgets (is their concern)... I get the impression they were mainly after free money.

Oh well...

On the other hand, I am still encouraged. In fact, this recent article:

..."Float the Iraqi dinar and stop the auction currency is the only solution of the Iraqi economy"...

...shows us a couple of things:

1) While there seems to be some resistance - from somewhere in the GOI to a move with the currency, where that is or why it is, I am unsure...

2) ...there also appears those on the other side of the fence, I am assuming those opposed to corruption and the corrupt processes... are putting pressure on the first group to do something, other than just fish around for free money. Such is noted in the above article.

On a side note, and relating to "fishing around" for free money... there did appear to be something of a start to rounding up corrupt political figures in an effort to reclaim "ill-gotten gains". As an additional note: Reported in Baghdad recently, it is implied such a push must include Maliki and his henchmen if such a move is to be recognized by the world (and Iraqis) as a genuine effort.

While a float may or may not be what they (or you and I) had envisioned, they just may well do something like this before they do nothing at all. Like I have said all along - I don't really care how it starts... just that it does and they GET TO IT!!