Central Banks & Macro risk-off · 0–6 months
A what‑if from the future

What if the US freezes Iraq's dollar auctions over Iran flows?

US Treasury curbing Iraqi dollar auctions over Iran flows spikes the dinar's parallel rate and import costs — a sanctions-driven local FX squeeze; the cascade's large VIX/equity move overstates the global read. Rhymes with the late-2022/2023 Fed-Treasury crackdown on Iraqi dollar smuggling that widened the parallel spread. The US controls Iraq's dollar lifeline via the NY Fed account; the novel angle is that compliance pressure forces Baghdad to choose between dollar access and Iranian trade ties.

16%
our model probability
over 0–6 months
prediction markets — the market's odds
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Anchored to measured history 16% · 90% range 5–26% · 32 dated precedents behind it — a wider range means thinner evidence

Every number ships with its receipt — the odds, the range, the precedents, and a public grade at Reality Check. The statistical machinery that produces it is proprietary.

The butterfly cascade

How this trigger trickles across markets, left → right — the root shock, its first‑order moves, then the ripple effects. Drag any node; tap a market for its real price history.

Resolution timeline — how this probability is moving

Our model's odds (electric blue) over time vs the market's (Polymarket, amber), from the past toward the 0–6 months horizon. Each dot is a real macro event that nudged the probability — green pushed it up, red pushed it down. Tap a dot for the source. Loading the probability audit trail…

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What it would mean

If this plays out, it is a risk-off shock. US Treasury curbs Iraqi central-bank dollar auctions over Iran flows, spiking the dinar's parallel rate and import costs. The trigger decomposes into signed root‑shocks — Geopolitical risk ▲ · Inflation surprise ▲ — which propagate through our causal graph to the markets below.

Methodology. Probability and impact are anchored to history and scored against what actually happens — wins and losses, in public, at Reality Check. Market odds live from Polymarket & Kalshi. By Vikas Singh, Quantitative Strategist. Updated 2026-08-13.