In Iran - protests, Brent - $ 67

In Iran, mass riots have been going on for a week. Oil prices beat records.

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The main world news during the Russian New Year holidays took place in Iran - the most serious mass protests since 2009 have been unfolding in the country. They began on December 28 in the second largest city in the country of Mesheda and continue. 21 people died in a week, 450 was arrested. Today, the Iranian authorities organized mass pro -government demonstrations in response.

• Unlike 2009, when the city middle class was protested, now the main part of the protesters are residents of small cities and rural areas, dissatisfied with the fact that the removal of sanctions from Iran did not solve the country's economic problems, the main of which is unemployment.
• Read more about how a new protest movement has formed in Iran, what are dissatisfied with and what the protesters require, you can read here , and about why the country's economy has not benefited from lifting sanctions here .
• The Iranian government blocked the most popular Telegram Mesenger in the country, with which protesters are organized. After that, according to the advertising specialist in Telegram, Fedor Skuratov, the number of views in Iranian news channels fell by only 20% - which means that up to 80% of users use the means of bypassing locks.
• Experts agree that the Islamic ruling regime of Ayatollah Khamenei is out of danger. The main political victim of protests can be the president-reformer who has achieved the lifting of the sanctions Hassan Rouhani, with whose name failures in the economy associate.

What am I to me?

In the Middle East, riots - oil prices are growing : Futures for Brent barrels are traded at $ 67. For oil, this is the best beginning of the year since 2014. However, experts are sure that Iran will not be the main factor in the market in 2018. Moreover, protests can force the government to increase social expenses, which means to increase oil exports and thereby drop prices.

Fun

While there are no more serious news (fortunately) more, we recall the funniest and most strange in places that happened in the world of business in 2017.

Half of the kingdom for bitcoin

The cryptocurrency rally became the main event of the year, and although the profit of 2000% of per annum is not funny at all, attempts to earn money on the hype could not but lead to stupid situations. For example, there were so many people who want to raise, and most importantly, it turned out to be so much that Bloomberg could have a constant heading: “XXX changed the name to the XXX BLOCKHAIN and has risen 36 times.” There were so many such news that after the third time they stopped being ridiculous.

The leader of this rather meaningless championship was the small American fintech startup Longfin Corp, which increased by 2,600% after the announcement of the purchase of the Ziddu.com blockchain provider (bought, the general director of Longfin, Vencat Minvalli). Two days after the transaction , the price of Longfin took off from $ 260 million to $ 7 billion, so that Minvalli himself was frightened - the manager called the growth of shares of his company "unexpected crazy speculation, which has nothing to do with the indicators of the company."

$ 2 million on an honest name

Bitcoin could also be presented in the nomination “The most stupid loss of money” - for example, with the story of how the founder of the Boing Boing site Mark Frauenfelder forgot the password from the purse from 7.4 bitcoin, which by the end of the year went up to $ 100 thousand. But nevertheless, scammers who were able to earn the name of the billionaire Richard Branson from the second time won.

It all started in the spring, when his acquaintance, Minister of Defense of Great Britain Michael Fallon, contacted Branson. Under the strictest secret, he informed the billionaire that the terrorists abducted the British diplomat, and he had to be bought for $ 5 million. Branson was ready to swear that the real minister was saying with him, but decided, just in case, to check that no one was kidnapped.

The case was referred to the police and forgot. But six months later, scammers achieved their own - in September, when Branson went upstairs from the wine cellar on his island, where Hurricane Irma was waiting, he received a letter from a familiar businessman with the question: “When you return $ 2 million, which I lended to you to restore the Virgin Islands after a hurricane?” Of course, Branson did not occupy anything: while the billionaire was without communication, the prankers did it - the same ones who called on behalf of the minister, Branson was sure. The money disappeared, the calling still has not found.

Mystic and Gref

Richard Branson, who had lost $ 2 million, could probably have consoled the Indian Yogin and Mystic Sadhugur, whom Herman Gref called to give a lecture to a narrow circle of Sberbank’s employees. It was about personal growth and the mortality of being. “Tomorrow is a lie that people create for themselves. It never exists and will never exist, so do not be afraid tomorrow, ”the Sadhuru explained to the bankers. The monks from his Ashram, meanwhile, distributed booklets to their charity foundation “Ish” and talked with bankers about cleaning karma and spiritual practices.

The meeting with the mystic was part of a series of events, which Gref arranged a large supporter of constant self -development and personal growth for his employees. In addition to Sadhguru with the bank’s employees, an American physicist and futurologist Mitio Kaku and an American writer, the author of the book Leader and the tribe, Dave Logan, but Indian Yogin became the main star. You can watch the full video of the meeting with him here .

Peter Mironenko, The Bell

Next time, The Bell will be released on January 5.