Tuesday, July 7. Iran carries its dead founder through Iraq to a grave 4 months in the making. The world watches the hearse. The story for your money is what Baghdad is building behind it.

Khamenei was killed in February. He goes in the ground on July 9, after 131 days above the earth, held until Iran had a ceasefire and Baghdad's clearance to move the cortege. His successor, Mojtaba, has not shown his face in public since March. The men actually running Iran are a parliament speaker and a Guard general.

While Tehran organised a procession, Iraq's central bank tore up 3 more currency-smuggling licenses. On July 10, 3 days out, the ASYCUDA customs system goes mandatory at every border and the paper trail dies. Egypt closed its own currency gap the same way in 2016.

In roughly 8 days, Prime Minister al-Zaidi flies to Washington with a delegation of Iraqi business owners, carrying an IMF-shaped 2027 budget and a fresh American energy deal.

Under the funeral coverage, the money world keeps repricing. Foreign central banks hold the smallest slice of US Treasuries this century. Hong Kong switched on its own gold clearing. Iraq is stacking the reserves a stronger dinar will one day stand on.

What you are watching is not a funeral. It is a handover. The old order goes into the ground, and the country that used to take its orders is building the machine that replaces it, bank by bank, bill by bill, contract by contract.