I got a ride to Sulemania from a knowledgeable Kurd, and asked him about the economy. He helped fill in some of the gaps.
The effect of the Daesh attacks in Iraq, he said, was significant, but the main factor hurting the Kurdish economy has been Baghdad’s embargo of funds to Erbil. This didn’t happen in a vacuum or because of Daesh – it was to penalize Erbil for oil exports that Baghdad saw as conducted illegally without clearance from the central Iraqi government.
Freedom and Power 