2025-05-10
49 分钟Blame a change in the tax code.
Although pistachios had been grown commercially in America since 1929,
when seeds were first brought back from Iran or Persia,
as it was then known, they weren't particularly common.
Instead, the nuts were an Iranian delicacy,
with a cultivation history dating back thousands of years.
But the American tax code changed in 1969 to scrap loopholes protecting almond and citrus farmers.
A tax shelter for pistachios remained, so farmers started going green.
Iran and the US have controlled 80% of the world output of pistachios for decades.
But embargoes and banking controls limit how far Iranian pistachios can go.
Now there's a chance that may change.
I'm John Prudhoe, and this is Checks and Balance from The Economist.
Each week, we take one big theme shaping American politics and explore it in depth.
Today, the Iranian nuclear talks.
In his first term, President Trump pulled the U.S. out of a deal.
Now he wants to throw it back in.
How likely is that?
His public stance on what he'd allow Iran to have has shifted by the day.
What's really at stake here for the Middle East and for the president's self-styled image as the master negotiator?
With me this week to talk about the talks that are likely to take place this weekend between America and its old foe Iran in Oman and discuss what's happening in the broader Middle East and how American foreign policy plays into that,