In Case You Missed It: UANI's Iran Rial Currency Printing Campaign Profiled by the The New York Times

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In Case You Missed It: UANI's Iran Rial Currency Printing Campaign Profiled by the The New York Times "[The] Disclosure was Contained in A Mailed Response To a Query by United Against Nuclear Iran, ... which [Began] a Campaign Aimed at the Currency Itself" Iran Sanctions May Cut Supply of Currency By Rick Gladstone The New York Times October 17, 2012 Western economic sanctions imposed on Iran over its disputed nuclear program have severely depressed the value of its national currency, the rial, causing higher inflation and forcing Iranians to carry ever-fatter wads of bank notes to buy everyday items. But the sanctions have also presented a new complication to Iran's banking authorities: they may not be able to print enough money. At least three European companies that have been providing currency production services to Iran say they have stopped doing business there. One of the companies, Koenig & Bauer AG of Würzburg, Germany, also says it has not responded to an Iranian request for bids to make presses to print new rials. Koenig & Bauer's disclosure was contained in a mailed response to a query by United Against Nuclear Iran, a New York-based sanctions advocacy group, which seized upon the 40 percent drop in the rial's value this month to begin a campaign aimed at the currency itself. The group began by pressing the Europe-based bank note industry, which has historically counted Iran as a client, to further ostracize the country by denying its central bank the basics of a functioning currency system: the printing presses, engraving paper, anticounterfeiting technology and other services needed to provide enough rials. "By manipulating and increasing the printing volume of the rial, the regime can bolster its floundering currency and mask the disastrous impact of its political decisions, economic mismanagement and isolation," Mark D. Wallace, the chief executive of United Against Nuclear Iran, said in announcing the campaign. In letters to Koenig & Bauer and two other companies in the bank note business, De La Rue P.L.C. of Hampshire, England, and Flint Group of Luxembourg, he said that European Union sanctions already prohibit Europe-based bank note companies from providing such services to Iran's central bank. Rob Hutchison, a spokesman for De La Rue, said on Tuesday in a telephone interview, "We don't provide technical support or services to Iran." Nathan Carleton, a spokesman for United Against Nuclear Iran, said in an e-mail that it had been contacted on Tuesday by Flint Group, which said it was no longer active in Iran. As inflation erodes the rial's purchasing power, Iran's central bank must increase the supply of money, which risks hyperinflation, a cycle of rising prices and rising volumes of money in circulation. Denying the bank's ability to increase the supply of money would theoretically hasten an economic crisis. Some economists, however, say the campaign to restrict rial circulation may have the unintended consequence of helping Iran. They point to hyperinflation in the former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1994 and Zimbabwe in 2007 and 2008. In both cases, the authorities could not print money fast enough to outpace their currency's falling value and the systems collapsed; Yugoslavs began using a new currency tied to the German mark, and Zimbabweans used a currency tied to the American dollar. And the cycle of higher prices ended. Steve H. Hanke, an economist at Johns Hopkins University, said that in Iran's case, limiting the amount of rials in circulation "would solve the biggest problem they have: inflation." But Mr. Wallace said that in Iran's economic system, the authorities "must maintain the ability to manipulate their money supply and must maintain the integrity of their currency." Without sophisticated security and printing technology, he said, "Iran may not be able to do either - hastening the demise of the rial." Click here to view UANI's Iran Rial Currency Printing Campaign website. Click here to view UANI's Iran Currency Tracker. ###  United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran's development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons. The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran's role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad; Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world; Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran; Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies; Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and; Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures. UANI is led by an advisory board of outstanding national figures representing all sectors of our country.

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