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A friend of mine recently told me about a long-term investment offer he discovered on the Internet. Now, the theory behind this was sound, change a few hundred bucks into Iraqi Dinah's (for which you get 2,500 to the pound). Wait until the war is over in Iraq and the country sorts itself out then change the money back with a few thousand percent profits.

When enquiring about IQD*s, anyone selling them is likely to quote the 1982 value of 3 US Dollars to the IQD as proof of Iraqs haylcon economical stability. But, the fact of the matter is that this rate was set by Saddam and was never traded openly on the world market. These days, the IQD is not used for any significant transactions and the total amount of business conducted through Iraq's national bank equates to thousands of Dollars making the Dinah pretty insignificant. Also, the ICQ is not traded on the FEX market and can only be bought legitimately from Iraq.

All this aside, the theory still works provided Iraq can sort themselves out economically at some point in the future. The dudes running these *unique investment opportunities*, love to quote the recovery of Kuwait's economy after the Gulf war. However, it is important to note that before the war Kuwait had a stable government and generated more of its income through foreign investments than oil. The war resulted in them losing 100 billion dollars in investment, but despite this the value of their currency increased thanks to a stable government, solvent economy and intact infrastructure. Now lets look at modern day Iraq, which has no stable government, little or no infrastructure, and no foreign income apart from its oil. Additionally, Iraq had entered the war with $125 billion USD debt.

Being a humble cave dwelling being, I*m not trying to suggest how you should or should not invest your money. I*d like to think that 30 years down the line Iraq can sort themselves out, but presently the fact is that as a country Iraq makes less money than a British fish and chip shop. Even if you love betting on long shots I suggest you find out as much as you can about this malarkey so this is good place to start: http://www.xe.com/iqd.htm

Anyway, that's all for now. If you liked this article, or have anything you*d like to see on DWB please feel free to leave a comment and I'll see what I can do.

Take it easy

DWB.