A fourth underwater telecommunications cable between Iran and OPEC countries has been cut in about a week. The cables carry both Internet and regular telephone traffic and TelCos have started using IP to transmit long distance calls because it’s cheaper. The odds of this happening accidentally are greater than winning the lotto. Most telecom people would say that this is impossible.

The thing that immediately comes to mind is that, like Saddam did prior to the invasion and Chavez is currently doing, Iran has started demanding oil payments in Euros. OPEC monarchs agreed, in exchange for protection from external forces and internal coupes, to hedge the dollar by pricing oil in U.S. currency. As the dollar continues to fall, the Euro is a more attractive form of payment.

If Iran is able to talk a couple of OPEC kings into following suit, no amount of interest rate cutting or tax rebates could stop the fall.

Cable Cuts!