U.S. Waiver of Sanctions on Iran’s Chabahar Port is Good News for Central Asia
December 7th, 2025
Via the Times of Central Asia, a report on how a recent U.S. waiver of sanctions on Iran’s Chabahar Port is good news for Central Asia: U.S. sanctions on Iran’s Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman have been on again/off again since 2013, when the U.S. Congress passed the Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act […]
Read more »Outdoor Concerts? Uncovered Hair? Shimmying in Public? Is This Iran?
December 1st, 2025
Courtesy of the New York Times, a report on how young people across Iran have been leading a dramatic change in social mores in recent months: Thousands of young men and women, hair uncovered and dressed in jeans and short-sleeve tops, jumped up and down, dancing and singing at a packed outdoor pop concert. In another […]
Read more »Chinese Cars for Iranian Copper: How Sanctions Revived Barter Trade
October 7th, 2025
Via Bloomberg, a look at a barter arrangement of Chinese cars for Iranian copper: Every few months, a consignment of car parts rolls off a production line in an industrial town on China’s mighty Yangtze River. The engines and chassis are sent to a different factory to be half-assembled into what is known as “knocked […]
Read more »Iran’s SCO Entry Turning Into a Road to Nowhere
September 4th, 2025
Via Asia Times, a report on how Iran’s SCO inclusion has brought Tehran little relief from Western sanctions and even less from promised but stalled economic projects: For a nation under the crush of international sanctions, membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) was never just about diplomatic photo-ops. For Iran, it was pitched as […]
Read more »Battling Power Outages and Heat Wave, Iran Orders More Shutdowns
August 24th, 2025
Courtesy of New York Times, a look at how – amid suffocating temperatures – Iranian authorities are closing public offices and cutting water and electricity as the country struggles with an energy crisis: Iranian officials have announced an extra day of government shutdowns to ease demand on dwindling electricity and water supplies amid a summer […]
Read more »Why Iran Can’t Keep The Lights On
August 19th, 2025
Via The Asia Times, insight into how chronic power deficit, rooted in aging infrastructure and economic mismanagement, is crippling Iranian industry and life: For Iranians, the seasons are now marked by two certainties: rolling blackouts during the scorching summer heat and toxic smog from burning low-grade fuel in power plants during the freezing winter. This […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.