G. Rahmanian

In the olden days at the onset of scarletina outbreaks, there would be unrestrained panic. As more and more people fell victim to the killer disease, though, the panicky atmosphere would be replaced by a creepy mood where there seemed to be no trust among the people. Nobody knew who had the disease, so people did their best to avoid each other. And gradually, the initially clear and audible gossipy talks would get substituted by a soft and fearful tone that was hardly audible.

Now, the relationship between scarletina and dollar-rial exchange rate!

The walls of the banks in Iran have mice. And the mice have ears. The mice heard everything about how the banks have been depleted of their cash, and they decided to tell the poor Iranians.

Things went crazy from there.

The initial panic, we all read about, met with the iron fist of the regime. Regime's goons went as far as confiscating, without receipts, the dollars in the money-exchange places. A bitter reminder of the post-revolution days when people's cars, homes, hotels, businesses, etc. were confiscated.

Things have gone underground since and rates have known no limits.

But why such panic? What was the real cause? We know people don't keep their cash at home. That's what banks are for. And among the convincing tales the mice related to Iranians, there was this little piece of scary detail about the new sanctions on Iran's Central Bank.

And that's, I'm only guessing, how the whole chaos got started.