109 Trillion in the Vault
1 week after "there is no money," the CBI Governor confirms 109 trillion in the treasury. 10 months of salaries covered. The crisis was never the money.
On Monday, a member of Iraq's parliamentary Finance Committee said the delayed salaries "cannot be considered secured." On Tuesday, his colleague Mansour al-Baiji told state media what Monday's meeting with Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, Finance Minister Faleh al-Sari, and Central Bank Governor Nizar Nasser Hussein had produced: a number. 109 trillion in the treasury. Roughly $83 billion. Enough, by the committee's own arithmetic, to pay every public salary and pension in Iraq for 10 consecutive months, before anyone touches the gold.
That is a 24-hour turn, and it lands 1 week after Iraqi front pages read "there is no money." You do not misplace $83 billion on Monday and find it on Tuesday. What you watched this week was not confusion. It was sequencing, and today we lay the whole sequence out for you.