They’re pissed off in Iran.

Although state media did its best to play down the upheaval, a rising tide of domestic discontent threatened to breach the proverbial levees on Monday, when protests against spiraling inflation spread beyond the capital.

It’s difficult to get a reliable read on the currency, but at one point, the black market USD exchange rate was — and try not to chuckle, because this is 93 million people’s economic misery we’re talking about — 1.45 million: 1.

There’s the chart. It’s, um, quite unfortunate, to put it politely. Note that the rate was around 30,000: 1 when the nuclear accord took effect in 2015, providing Tehran with much needed sanctions relief.

The regime on Monday dismissed Mohammad Reza Farzin, head of the country’s central bank which has labored under heavy international restrictions for the better part of 15 years with carveouts for food and medicine.

Technically, Farzin offered to resign following a meeting at which key officials discussed pressing matters related to the currency. His resignation was then accepted by the president, Masoud Pezeshkian. But it’s fair to suggest the real government (i.e., the theocracy’s clerics) wanted to hand a restive populace someone’s figurative head to see if that might quell the unrest before resorting to… well, you know.

Farzin was appointed late in 2022 by Ebrahim Raisi who, you’ll recall, was a top contender to succeed Khamenei in the unlikely event he ever dies. As it turned out, Raisi died first when his helicopter — and there’s really no tactful way to say this — crashed into the side of mountain in May of 2024. Pezeshkian retained Farzin at the central bank after winning an election to replace Raisi.

Monday’s protests in Tehran centered around the Grand Bazaar, inevitably conjuring a historical parallel with the unrest which preceded the ouster of the monarchy in 1979. Khamenei needs a merchant mutiny about like he needs another round of Israeli airstrikes, and cracking down on the protesters risks an international backlash.

Annual inflation in Iran’s running north of 40%, higher for food and healthcare. If you’re a coffee drinker in Caracas, that sounds benign. If you’re anyone else, it sounds like a prelude to economic collapse. It doesn’t help that Iran plans to raise taxes next year.

Planned pay hikes for pensioners and public workers were already unlikely to keep pace with overall price growth, which is to say real wages in Iran were set to fall even before the impact of the most recent bout of currency depreciation.

Earlier this month, the government raised prices for subsidized gas. The last time they tried that, in 2019, it backfired: A well-meaning attempt to relieve poverty by diverting scarce resources from fuel subsidies sparked violent protests which the government met with an internet blackout and, ultimately, a brutal crackdown that left 300 dead, according to the official tally. (Independent estimates put the death toll at more than 1,000.)

I’ve said this before and I’ll reiterate it here: The regime’s days are numbered. Israel’s systematic dismantling of Iran’s regional proxy network culminating in the decimation of Hezbollah and, ultimately, a humiliating 12-day war which was over before it started, exposed the theocracy as something weaker than a paper tiger. When the gloves were off in earnest, Iran was for all intents and purposes defenseless.

The beginning of the end was Qassem Soleimani’s assassination in Baghdad with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis on January 3, 2020. The regime never recovered from that loss. It’s just a matter of time before it’s toppled by a popular revolt.