Averted Vision

From last week:

Iran has withdrawn around $75 billion from Europe to prevent the assets from being blocked under threatened new sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, an Iranian weekly said. ... "Part of Iran's assets in European banks have been converted to gold and shares and another part has been transferred to Asian banks," Mohsen Talaie, deputy foreign minister in charge of economic affairs, was quoted as saying. ... "About $75 billion of Iran's foreign assets which were under threat of being blocked were wired back to Iran based on Ahmadinejad's order," the weekly said. ... Iran is making windfall gains from record global oil prices and said in April its foreign exchange reserves stood at more than $80 billion. Iran's foreign reserves figure has been climbing steadily. Some analysts say that, alongside rising oil revenues, Iran has been helped by its decision to shift away from the U.S. dollar into other currencies as the dollar has weakened.

You know how it's sometimes easier to see an object if, instead of staring right at it, you look slightly to one side? Star-gazers do it. As speculation increases about military action against Iran, look past the headlines about what the U.S. intelligence community says is a non-existent nuclear weapons program and focus on a more immediate and existential threat. If you think pulling money from Western banks, loudly shunning the dollar, and buying gold with oil proceeds doesn't represent one -- particularly right now, with the Federal Reserve's back against the wall -- go outside during the next starry night and give your retinas a good workout.