How Iran's flagging economy inflamed its protests

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  NPR.

• 00:10

  As we speak, US Navy troops are in a state of waiting.

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  They're telling their husbands,

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  wives and children that they're going to be away from home for more months.

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  That's because last week, news broke that the U.S.

• 00:23

  government told a second aircraft carrier group to go to the Middle East.

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  President Trump is imploring Iran to make a deal on its nuclear weapons and missiles programs.

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  Iran's leadership is in a vulnerable position.

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  This comes off the back of massive countrywide protests that swept the nation around New Year's.

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  They've mostly been called for now because of a bloody crackdown by the Iranian government.

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  So far, activists say that at least 7,000 protesters were killed.

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  There are many reasons for those huge protests.

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  Censorship, religious discrimination, corruption.

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  But the initial seed of these protests was economic.

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  It started with shopkeepers frustrated with inflation and a currency collapse.

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  This is The Indicator from Planet Money.

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  I'm Waylon Wong.

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  And I'm Darian Woods.

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  Today on the show, the economic roots of Iran's protests.

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  We speak with a small business owner in Tehran, and we learn why Iran is in such an economic mess.

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