Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has found a new way to needle Washington: inflation data. After a hotter-than-expected U.S. consumer price report landed, Ghalibaf took to X to mock the Treasury, noting that its forecasts for Iran's collapse had come and gone, and wondering aloud whether the department deserved a Nobel Prize in physics.

Mocks Treasury Over Inflation

In his post, Ghalibaf wrote, “Let’s ‘play the percentages.’ Not in odds, but in the % increases.”

That line was a direct jab at Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who earlier this month described himself as “the house” in the U.S. bond market and said the house “plays the percentages.”

Ghalibaf wasn't done. He added that “time’s relative; turns out it could be irrelevant. Nobel in Practical Physics for Treasury?”

He also ran through a string of Treasury predictions that he said had all passed without coming true: the forecast that Iran would have nothing in two weeks, the warning that wells would explode, and the talk of an ‘Economic D-Day.’

The two-week jab was aimed squarely at Bessent, who told Fox News that Iran would have “nothing left to trade for anything” within two weeks, once about 15 million barrels of oil still bound for China had left under the U.S. blockade.

This isn't Ghalibaf's first swipe. Earlier, he turned a Halloween-themed ghost meme into a jab at the U.S. economy, taking shots at the bond market and the jobs report while firing back that Washington's sanctions are pushing Iran toward economic collapse.

U.S. Inflation Runs Hotter Than Expected

The numbers behind the mockery: consumer prices rose 3.7% year over year in September, up from 3.4% in August and above the 3.6% economists expected, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, rose 0.3% on the month against a 0.2% forecast, and 2.6% annually against 2.5% expected.

Gasoline jumped 9.1% in September and is up 34.2% from a year earlier.

War Tensions Persist

Washington has stepped up its economic campaign against Iran, called Operation Economic Outcast, which seeks to restrict Tehran's access to international financial networks and cut off revenue the U.S. government says helps fund Iran's military operations and regional activities.

Iran's Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi warned that Iran is ready to answer any renewed U.S. attack and said Trump could strike before the Nov. 3 midterms, though the president has said the U.S. will not resume strikes before the election.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by MarketDash editors.