Ahmadinejad tanking Iran's economy

Daniel Drezner posts an article from the Financial Times:

Some 60 economists this week wrote to Iran’s President Mahmoud
Ahmadi-Nejad criticising his government for putting “short-term welfare above
long-term sustainable development”.
Almost half way through his first
four-year term, the letter underlines the acute dilemmas faced by the president
in delivering short-term welfare promises as he manoeuvres to bolster political
support...

“What the government describes as economic policies do not
match any professionally-known theories, but are rather populist political
policies,” said Mohammad Tabibian, former deputy head of the Management and
Planning Organisation, a cross-governmental co-ordination body.

That's the trouble with dictators. They have to make unreasonable concessions to the rabble to stay in power, whatever the cost to the country.