It’s the economy, stupid!

While Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tries to beat the United States and the rest of the Western powers in a nuclear stare-down contest, the greatest pressure on his government remains internal discontent with the failure of the Iranian economy.

Last week, a panel representing 57 economists made its plea for Ahmadinejad to change economic policies during a five-and-a-half-hour meeting with the hard-line president.

To quote an Associated Press report:

In a letter read in public during the meeting, the economists told the president his government was ignoring academic findings, wasting huge oil revenues, and enforcing policies that have provoked greater inflation and worsening economic conditions.

Ahmadinejad was elected on a populist agenda in 2005, promising to bring oil revenues to every family, eradicate poverty and tackle unemployment. His failure to keep those promises has provoked increasingly fierce criticism from both conservatives and reformists.

Housing prices in Tehran have tripled and prices for fruits, vegetables or other basic commodities have more than doubled since last summer. Inflation further worsened after a 25-percent hike in fuel prices in May. And some protesters burned down gas stations last month when fuel rationing was imposed.

“Excessive spending from oil revenues... won’t bring economic growth, but causes stagnation in the private sector, makes the size of the government bigger and causes greater inflation,” the economists told Ahmadinejad.

The economists called Ahmadinejad's government the wealthiest in Iran’s modern history due to soaring revenues from oil exports, but said it had failed to capitalize on this to remedy Iran’s economic ills.

Ahmadinejad's government has cashed in more than $120 billion in oil exports since it took over two years ago, an unprecedented figure.

(Despite that), Iran's Central Bank confirmed for the first time last week that inflation had registered at 14.2 percent despite Ahmadinejad’s promises to make it a single-digit figure. Some independent experts place the inflation rate at 30 percent or more.

Likewise, economists say the unemployment rate could be as high as 30 percent, though the government only acknowledges 10 percent.

So, Ahmadinejad is raking in more money than Iran has ever seen, yet his country’s economy is worsening. Not exactly a glorious revolution, huh?