Green Gold Is Getting More Precious in Wartime; Spurring South African Farmers to Boost Output
April 24th, 2026
Via Bloomberg, a report on the Iran conflict is disrupting pistachio supplies globally: South African farming group Karoo Pistachios is ramping up output to capitalize on surging prices and compete with the world’s biggest producers. The conflict in Iran, the world’s second-largest grower, disrupts supplies in an already constrained market, with prices climbing to the […]
Read more »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 »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.