Rather than gasoline sanctions, increasing the gasoline federal excise tax would accomplish precisely the same thing only sound much better. (Like an environmental thing instead of punishing Iran.) There's some evidence that the incidence of gas taxes is such that a significant part of any gas tax increase would come from the producers rather than consumers.

Whereas, of course, a gasoline embargo would also increase the price at the pump for consumers, too.

"Last year Ahmedinejad’s approval rating was 60%. Now it is down to 35%."

35%?

Hm. That's 4 points lower than Bush's approval rating here.

Re who pays for a gas tax- the consumers pay.

Perhaps the producer's margins will thin somewhat for a while, but the producer will pass on as much of any increase as possible. They are in business to make a profit, and if they can't make a profit, they will go out of business.

One way or another, the consumers will pay.

Repeat after me: "profit is not inherently evil" and "the economy is not a zero-sum game".

rosignol is correct.

When is there going to be a recognition by the world of punditry that the consumer always pays? If not not a particular class of direct consumer, then classes of indirect consumers will pay. There is only one payer and that is the general population. Some segments pay less than others but ultimately the populace pays! The idea that self-interested producers will pony up; or that in some magical way government will invent a costless currency and bear the burden of the marketplace is infantile. The populace is the payer. The question is never who will pay. The question is who will benefit. The burden on one class may increase or decrease, the marginal cost for other classes may be affected, but in the end there is only ONE payer. Benefits on the other hand, are the flotsam of the economic tide and ability to skim them is the mark of privilege.

the contradictions resulting from lack of a clear economic theory

From what I've read this is a major problem with Islamism, namely that it is stuck with pre-modern view of economics, so it is unable to construct a modern industrial economy.

I could be wrong, but I think that is a more fundamental problem than authoritarian government. If an authoritarian government switches to a free market economic system, it tends to lead to democracy over the long run. Maybe it doesn't always go that way, but it does a lot of the time. But I think there are far fewer cases where a country remained non-free market but successfully switched from authoritarian government to democracy. And few if any where both changes happened at once.

Does anyone know if there is any serious thinking going on that relates Islam to modern economics?

Does anyone know if there is any serious thinking going on that relates Islam to modern economics?

Economically, Islam is hosed.

The basic problem is interest. Muslims are forbidden to charge other muslims interest, which makes raising capital difficult.

Some outfits have come up with a workaround, but it's very ad-hoc, and continues to bias the economy in muslim countries towards favoring the people who are already wealthy... and the people who are already rich don't seem to be particularly concerned about getting richer.

Theoretically, a foreign (non-muslim) outfit could go into a muslim country and help modernize the system (because they could charge muslims interest), but then we run into the 'rule of law' and 'property rights' issues.

Is anyone confident that the government in a majority-muslim country will allow a foreign non-muslim firm to use the law to enforce payment of a debt?

I thought Iranian disenchantment with its totalitarian government was a given.