It appears that sanctions on Iran are enough to really screw ordinary people without being enough to compel the rulers to change their nuclear plans:
The UN sanctions have cut government income sharply. This has caused enormous inflation and a sharp increase in unemployment. The government is being openly criticized for heavy spending (over $5 billion so far) to prop up the Assad dictatorship in Syria. Although the new sanctions and the loss of over a million barrels a day of oil exports has caused a lot of commotion inside Iran, it will not have a huge impact on the Iranian economy. Current GDP is about $480 billion a year and if the reduced oil exports continue for the rest of the year, GDP will be down about a percent for the year (versus growth of over five percent without sanctions). Iran has sufficient hard currency reserves to continue essential imports (food and other consumer goods) for 2-3 years. Despite lots of corruption by the ruling clerics and their families (who control or own about half the GDP), the other half of the economy is quite robust and productive. Most Iranians are angry at the corruption and harsh rule of the clerics, but about twenty percent of the population benefits from working for the clerics, and a lot of these supporters have weapons and are willing to kill to keep things as they are. So the majority grumbles and gets by as best they can.
But hey, even if the Obama administration's claims about the stunning effectiveness of their so-called harsh sanctions are malarkey, the Obama administration's "last resort" of military action to stop Iran has magically become fast and easy!
It's almost like the Obama administration just wants to float enough malarkey to convince voters for the next month that the Obama administration is working hard to stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons, and regardless of what happens, the administration has a plan to stop Iran.
That notion of competence is just a bunch of stuff, of course.
