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The article talks about the state of Tehran's atmosphere which has turned into a thick brown haze of smog. The inadequacy of public transportation in the city along with government policy promoting automobile usage for its booming car industry has created an atmosphere which has led to the bastardization of its air and the consequent deaths of its citizens. The article is related with this week's topic in the sense that in case of market failure (overproduction of cars) an adequate government response is required to stabilize the situation - which was not the case for Ahmadinejad's Tehran.

The article discusses a higher than expected growth in the level of inflation, growing 2.4% in January alone. The rise is attributed to a rise in food prices due to the loss of harvest during the smog wildfire issues of summer 2010. Under election pressure, the finance minister has stated that more compensation would be given to low-income earners if inflation continued to rise unimpeded.