Wednesday, July 15, and the dollars are moving in Baghdad again. In April, before Ali al-Zaidi had the job, Washington choked the supply. This morning Baghdad answered from its own side.

Iraq's central bank issued an order letting local banks hand dollars back to their customers, and the governor who signed it is in Washington this week, sitting with the auditors who decide whether the world will clear Iraqi money. A day earlier, that same US Treasury froze over $130 million in wallets tied to Iran's regime. Baghdad got warmth, an open hand and an impromptu lunch with President Trump. Tehran got a freeze. Both came off one desk inside a single week.

Read the two as one move. Iraq is being drawn back toward the money it lost. Iran, shut out for months already, just felt the squeeze tighten another notch. The same hand is running both.

In 1948, the United States sorted the world with a chequebook, and the countries it let in spent the next 75 years rich, banked and defended. This week it sorted two central banks the same way, and Iraq is being let back in. A currency does not get its real worth back until the country behind it is fully inside the system again, and inside is what every one of these moves is buying.