How the Iranian regime triggered the stock market crash
Iran, January 24, 2021—The burst of Iran’s stock market bubble and the disappearance of people's money in the capital market has been a topic of discussion and criticism by the media and government experts in in the past few days.
Most of these studies point out that regime president Hassan Rouhani and his government blew the stock market bubble in the early months of 2020. Even in August, Rouhani’s plan was to further plunder Iranians and compensate his government’s budget deficit by digging his hands into the pockets of the people.
It is worth noting that Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei also recommended investment in the stock market. According to the state-run Fars news agency, in a meeting with a group of producers, entrepreneurs, and economic activists, Khamenei encouraged the general public to participate in productive investments such as cooperatives and the stock market.
In turn, Rouhani advertised a lot about the stock market and people's need to invest in this market.
According to a report by the state-run IBENA website, at a cabinet meeting on April 22, 2020, Rouhani said: "In the year of the ‘production leap,’ the capital market is one of the ways of our economic movement.”
"Although the stock market has its ups and downs, it can also be managed," he said in another meeting on May 18, according to the state-run Fars news agency.
Rouhani indeed manages the capital market. But the entire regime and the institutions linked to the government and Khamenei stand to benefit from plundering the wealth of the Iranian people.
To pave the way to plunder people's property by the government and these institutions, Rouhani advised the people on August 6 to invest their assets on the stock market.
"By taking advantage of the Ministry of Oil plans and with the conditions that the stock market shows, the situation will improve; people have to put everything on the stock market," he said.
"In the cabinet meeting, we prepared the sentiment surrounding the stock market for the public. People should not look at the stock market as short-term," Rouhani said on September 9, according the official IRNA news agency.
Along with Rouhani, the Minister of Economy and the president of the Central Bank head also spoke about the need for people to invest in the stock market. And all the time, they were well aware that the growing bubble of the stock market would burst sooner or later, and people would lose their capital.
After its artificial growth, the Iranian stock market went on its predictable down turn, and the value of stocks started to fall at an accelerating pace. The stock market saw a 40,000-point drop on January 16, followed by a 36,000-point drop on January 18, and another 19,000-point drop on the next day.
Regarding the government's role in bringing the people's capital to the stock market and the current situation of these shareholders and their losses, Jahan-e Sanat daily reported on January 19: "The small shareholders of the capital market, who entered the market with the propaganda maneuver of the government, the parliament, and the Central Bank, have suffered significant losses and some of them have lost everything, especially since the beginning of this year. Therefore, it does not seem that the response of the middle managers of the Stock Organization to the protesters will cure the pain as long as no concrete, practical action has been taken to adjust the market conditions and compensate them. Small shareholders have come to believe that the Twelfth Government, in its final year, has made major financing from public funds on the stock market and has now abandoned it when it does not need market liquidity."
This is when the Rouhani government is not taking any action to compensate the people, and of course, it will be no surprise if it doesn’t do so in the future.
Because if he was going to work for the benefit of the people investing in the stock market, he would not have blown the capital market bubble since last year, and he would not have encouraged people to invest in this ambiguous market.
Arman daily, on January 19, addressed the Rouhani government with an article titled "What did you do with the people's capital in the stock market?" and wrote: “What matters is the people's capital that is gone with the wind. The people who trusted the high-ranking officials and invested a their meager capital in hopes of providing a minimum daily wage and these small investments melted like snow in the heat of summer because of the irrationality of economic officials."
The other side of the loss of people's capital is large government-linked corporations and institutions affiliated with Khamenei, such as the Revolutionary Guards, the Mostazafan Foundation, and the Execution of Khomeini’s Order organization, which are taking advantage of the stock market crash.
"The government has both violated rules and took advantage [of the people]. Currently, the fall in stock prices is due to fear of the market's instability, wrong policies, and abuse of the market by large companies that wanted to buy cheap stocks, or the assets of listed companies that have grown sharply without any activity," wrote the state-run Mehr News Agency on January 17, quoting Amir Hossain Ghazizadeh Hashemi Deputy Speaker of the regime's parliament.
This is how the regime and the Rouhani government betrayed people, whose life savings were looted by this regime and its traders in the stock market.
These people now have no choice but to take to the streets and protest because they know the government will not return their assets.
On January 18, investors gathered in front of the stock market building and pulled down its flag while chanting, "Death to Rouhani, death to the economic corruptor, shame on you, death to this deceitful government, Rouhani you liar, where are you now?"
This is just a glimpse of what is yet to come.