TNT call notes 6-Oct-2014
Tony: Good morning, TNT! It is Monday, October 6, 2014. I want so bad to say September, but it is October. We‘ll go thought some information. DC is not here because he has other things to do. Since I’m here without my ‘handler’, I can tell you guys whatever you want, or close to it!
Iraq is still saying the same thing ion their television. The PM spoke for 1.5 hours on their reform and how they are growing. They were excited last week with their cards being loaded. Everyone’s card is still not loaded, which should have happened pretty quickly. They cannot get all the cards to the right people yet, and people are skeptical of accepting the cards because of what they went through with Maliki. They want their money rather than cards. We are informed that there are still lines at the bank, exchanging their cards for cash, and the rate is still $3.58 – the rate on the cards and at the banks over there.
We did hear on some other sites someone is seeing a 1:1 conversion. Those rates are not international. We know the rates are $3.58, and our rate was to be higher than that, but last week it was lowered in our banks to $3.58. I don’t know if they wanted to match the Iraqi rates, or it might change here. It was at the banks last Thursday and once again it was scheduled for Saturday.
We understand there were some more challenges within the system. Supposedly these are being worked out and everyone is trying to agree who would be responsible for this if it went the wrong way, and what the best time was to do it. It was scheduled for a specific time on Saturday, and it didn’t happen.
When can it happen? It could happen any moment of any moment, any hour, any day from here on.
Was there another date set? Last week, bank people were told to be ready on the 8. October. They changed the date, so I can say it now. Call center people did work all weekend and they are in now, and they are scheduled to work on the time frames expected. They want them to come in so they will be accustomed and not get all excited.
There is not much more from Iraq. Abadi said that a hundred billion dollars was stolen from their system in the last eight years, and he will go after everyone who took that money during that time.
On this side, all of the intel is that everybody is ready. Our government, banks, etc., are all ready, saying, “let’s go!” That is the party line, anyway, but if that was true, we would be going.
There has to be another reason we are still sitting here today, and I don’t know what that is. I can speculate. It has nothing to do with Iraq’s budget or defense minister or their banking laws – those are all in place. I do know that Iraq was given a new loan to make payments with and given a limited number of days to repay that money. That is not up on Wednesday, but many think this will still go by then because Abadi announced that the economic reforms will be completed by Wednesday and many are saying the banks are ready for Wednesday. He can make the decision at any moment, because Parliament is not supposed to come back until the 14th. He said after the holiday, and NOT after Parliament comes back, so this week makes more sense.
All the systems are ready, so let’s have some questions…
[Adept1: This is all the news; if you want to listen to Q and A, listen to the replay or look for Duke’s notes.]
