Of course, Iraqis are looking forward to being rid of Saddam. I've heard a couple of reports of Iraq's stock market and real estate markets going up. I'd been hoping to find an article to post on the subject. The reason is clear. After Saddam, Iraq will get back on the path to prosperity.
“Prices have doubled in the past three months,” says Adnan Abd Al-Ridh, a real-estate agent in Basra. He quit his job as a car salesman six months ago to cash in on the boom. “The prices of both land and houses are rising,” says a Western diplomat in Baghdad. “People think they’ll be even higher in two months.”
Now what do they expect to be different in two months?<g>
But watch what Iraqis are doing; their optimism is unmistakable. The Baghdad stock exchange is soaring, and private construction plans are pushing ahead. Sarmad Majeed, 36, whose family runs a coffee shop overhanging the Tigris in Baghdad, says he’s investing 180 million dinars in a 14,000-square-foot shopping arcade. Two months ago he paid 60 million to buy land-use rights for the project. “Six months from now it will be worth 70 million,” he predicts. An older employee, Naama Isa, recalls when the shop was so quiet that water buffalo liked to hang out in the shade beneath it. Asked why the market is surging now, both men pause a bit too long and then speak a bit too quickly. “The area is a desirable one,” says Isa. In the same breath, Majeed answers: “We love our country.” |
