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Zimbabwe has offered a reminder of what really bad monetary policy can do. On June 11, its central bank said it would implement the government’s policy of eliminating the national currency by exchanging Zimbabwe dollars into U.S. dollars at a ratio of 35 quadrillion to one.

The 35,000,000,000,000,000 number is high, but it actually understates the currency’s dilution of value. The Zimbabwe dollars which are being legally demonetised – in practice the country has relied on U.S. dollars and other currencies since 2009 – were already a new denomination. In 2008, one new Zimbabwe dollar replaced 10 billion of the old ones, issued only two years earlier. Zimbabwe’s true hyperinflation rate, therefore, has 25 zeroes.

Zimbabwe’s mirage-quadrillionaires are witnesses to its monetary disaster. Harare is the new Weimar. Just as Germany created money to pay for reparations after World War One, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe used newly created cash to spend well beyond the government’s means.

The Zimbabwe example was frequently cited by opponents of central banks’ quantitative easing programmes after the 2008 financial crisis. Surely, they would say, this is the first step on the road to ruin.

The real and far more instructive lesson is quite different. It takes truly exceptional incompetence to create hyperinflation. To get there, Mugabe and his central bankers had to mess up government finances, economic policy and foreign relations. They had to keep going when the failure of their policies was painfully obvious. And they had to have no effective political opposition to restrain them.

In most corners of the world, deflation is currently a far bigger concern than inflation, let alone hyperinflation. The typical central banker has to worry about having too little power to influence wages and prices, not too much. Governments do have the capacity to create Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation through deficit spending, but that requires far more excess than any halfway decent political system will allow.

Economist Milton Friedman once said that inflation is “always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon”. That may be technically accurate, but it misses the point about hyperinflation, which is always and everywhere political.

Anyone have change for a quadrillion dollar bill?
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Numbers killed by apartheid South African government from 1948 to 1994: 8000 according to truth and reconciliation commission.
Numbers of Matabeles killed by Mugabe in a single year: 20000
And yet Africans still treat this monster as a hero. They are filthy hypocrities.

you should read fidel castro's recollections about the south african apartheid government's involvement in the angola war... that war could have become a nuclear war.

the real monster is nato, which has killed millions.
 
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Mugabe don't like whites? What's new?

Oh wait, he is accepting white aid~250 mill.€uros this year. And investment team from EIB was there recently. Hopefully the aid bought some concessions...

European Investment Bank team arrives in Zim



I would go for that to.

@PlanetWarrior

erm....no local wildlife to make the nights more interesting? I know i would not be content with two goats wrestling.....

Wildlife abound but mostly in reserves. In all fairness to Zim, they do a good job of protecting their wildlife despite the odds against them. Strange government..protect the wildlife but torture their people :D

so, what political/economic system ( and businesses ) should zimbabwe adopt, according to you, such that it remains a independent society??

( do make a long post, if you wish ).

The only political system which has proven to be a success in Southern Africa is a democracy where the elected leader (President or Prime Minister) may not serve for more than two terms. The problem with any other system is that once a leader or a political party serves for too long a term in government, they get too confident and start pillaging from the state coffers. Apart from that, they also tend to lag behind on the human rights issues which includes social development for their people.

Numbers killed by apartheid South African government from 1948 to 1994: 8000 according to truth and reconciliation commission.
Numbers of Matabeles killed by Mugabe in a single year: 20000
And yet Africans still treat this monster as a hero. They are filthy hypocrities.

Correction: Not all Africans treat Mugabe as a hero. He is despised by the average South African (despite the ANC government entertaining his insanity) and he is generally a persona non grata in Namibia
 
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The only political system which has proven to be a success in Southern Africa is a democracy where the elected leader (President or Prime Minister) may not serve for more than two terms.

per five year elections, presidents, prime ministers... that is a false democracy system borrowed without thinking from britain.

true democracy is direct-democracy, guided by socialism.

you should have asked nelson mandela his views on that former "evil dictatorship" ( and direct-democracy ) in north africa.
 
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Many people on this forum unashamedly mock Zimbabwe. It really is not such a bad country after all. I have lived here since March 2013 and to be honest, it is overall a peaceful and beautiful land. Here are some facts and pictures of this graceful land:-

Criticizing His Excellency, President Robert Mugabe who is the founding father of Zimbabwe or a Senior Public Officer of the governing party ZANU-PF can land you ten years in jail but heck, who would want to cause embarrassment to their nation by going around speaking badly about their government yeah ? Patriotism is being instilled in the average Zimbabwean and this I am certain has now been adopted by them without much fuss.

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The police here are rather caring, especially if you are wealthy. They adopt riot control measures which are humane. An example is the last riots at Shurugwi where only 25 people were killed and about 500 arrested and awaiting trial since 2010. The rioters were complaining about the lack of government food aid and now that they are imprisoned without trail, the police seem to have sorted out their problems by affording them three meals a day.
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Unemployment is rife in Zimbabwe. For Zimbabweans that is. The Chinese and Indians who have practically economically colonized Zimbabwe have no problems with obtaining a job since their companies doing business in Zimbabwe imports their citizens en mass to do work which could easily be done by the local people. But let's not paint Zim in a bad light since this seems to be the norm in other neighboring countries as well such as Kenya, the DRC and Namibia. Only South Africa seems to have taken a strong stance against this practice for the reason that the trade unions there are quite vocal and so is the media.

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There is a free media in Zimbabwe but they seem to concentrate mostly on advertising and selected crime and social news and on international news. In fact, the average Zimbabwean seems to know more about what is the political situation in Ukraine than in their own homeland. Nothing to laugh about since we have a similar biased media in India and Pakistan for example.
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The Zimbabwean currency is completely devalued thanks to the efforts of the colonialist west especially Britain. But to improvise, the government has authorized the use of the imperialist devil USA's dollars. This has ticked off neighboring countries such as Namibia and South Africa who believe that this is an attempt by Zimbabwe to project itself as the USA of Africa. Namibians and South Africans view this rather seriously since Zimbabweans were always regarded by them as the Mexicans of Southern Africa who endlessly illegally cross the border to seek work in their countries. The currency commences from 10 Zim dollars to 100 billion Zim dollars. Two loaves of bread costs about 100 billion Zim dollars, depending on which part of Zimbabwe you live in.

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The people of Zimbabwe are overall rather well educated. Zimbabwe ironically rightfully claims a higher educated population than both South Africa and Namibia and Malawi combined. This also ticked off South Africans and Namibians who countered this by questioning why there were more Zimbabweans in their countries than there was in Zimbabwe. His Excellency, President Mugabe took strong offense to this and demanded that a census be conducted in Zimbabwe to prove this irritating claims false. Offcourse they were false. The census proved that there were approximately more than 8000 more Zimbabweans in Zimbabwe than there was in South Africa and 2000 more Zimbabweans than there was in Namibia.
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Zimbabwe has a lovely landscape. It is well worth visiting but rather expensive now that they trade in US$. There is Victoria Falls and the Great Zimbabwe Ruins (no not the country itself but rocks which epitomize an ancient culture). You are likely to see the big five (animals not politicians) if you visit any Zimbabwean wildlife parks. There is a migration pattern of wildlife between a host of countries including Zimbabwe which in the past 10 years seems to be emulated by the people of Zimbabwe. The lions especially didn't take kindly to this and in Kruger National Park itself, horrendous stories are being reported of Zimbabweans being eaten by amongst others lions and cheetahs. Many beautiful artwork is sold in Zimbabwe. For about US$18000 you could buy a well sculptured elephant and have it shipped to South Africa for shipment to your homeland. Offcourse, if you bargain well enough, you could get the price dropped to US$8000. This trick was passed onto the Zimbabweans by the Indian and Chinese workers.

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Zimbabwe has one of the most fertile and arable land in the world. You could spit out an apple seed to the soil when it rains and in a week an apple tree seedling would be growing there. Most farms were owned by White Zimbabweans during the early 1990s. The Lancashire Agreement between Zimbabwe and that devil colonialist country named Britain was suspended by that evil monster Tony Blair during the 1990s after the evil colonialist Britain accused the Zimbabwean government of mass corruption and utilizing the funds given by Britain for their personal use. The Lancashire Agreement was in effect an undertaking by Britain in the 1980s to pay to the Zimbabwean government a certain amount to be used for the benefit of its people as a redress for colonialism of its land. Since Tony Blair looked White and the White Zimbabweans looked White like Tony Blair, His Excellency ordered the Black people of Zimbabwe to invade the farms and to take possession of farms and farming equipment without compensation to those pesky Tony Blair looking alike people. His Excellency vowed to never let foreigners own Zimbabwean assets again. The Whites of Zimbabwe emigrated largely to South Africa and to Britain. The people offcourse messed up the farms and the current scenario is that the Chinese and the Indians are buying up those farms (in addition to the mines and everything else of value in Zimbabwe) on a large scale. Britain threatened to invade Zimbabwe in retribution for some of its citizens being killed there. It somehow seemed to have lost interest in the fight when Mugabe announced the printing of the 5 billion Zim dollar note.

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I went there right a month after independence and a few times later. I saw this country from a top notch go downhill to the state it is in. Uncle T.I.M is in power and his cronies/wife controlling everything. T.I.M (That Idiot Mugabe).
I still have the Zim dollars when 1$ meant a lot; now it is a memory of a bygone era.

Tanganda tea, Mazoe orange, and let alone the tobacco - especially Ridgeback pipe tobacco - nothing in this world comes close. All gone and some barely available.

I see the citizens of Zimbabwe with compassion yet noone has the guts to stand up - everyone i know says his police is everywhere. It is a tragedy since it has so much resources and hard working people - it is a tragedy to see what has become of it.

Zanu-PF and the opposition included are hyenas.

I see the same being the case in my country with top ANC leaders milking the country.

Numbers killed by apartheid South African government from 1948 to 1994: 8000 according to truth and reconciliation commission.
Numbers of Matabeles killed by Mugabe in a single year: 20000
And yet Africans still treat this monster as a hero. They are filthy hypocrities.
I recall hearing about the massacres in the 80s by the 5th brigade. Bulawayo is just a day's ride from my home. Noone but noone said anything right from African Union to United Nation. TIM was a great pal - he is a master politician. Yet this same very AU chose to sanction Tanzania when Nyerere said enough to Idi Amin and went it to get rid of the tyrant. Everyone condemned Nyerere for his action which crippled his country - BUT - I still give him credit for his leadership despite his economic policies which devastated the country.
 
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I went there right a month after independence and a few times later. I saw this country from a top notch go downhill to the state it is in. Uncle T.I.M is in power and his cronies/wife controlling everything. T.I.M (That Idiot Mugabe).
I still have the Zim dollars when 1$ meant a lot; now it is a memory of a bygone era.

Tanganda tea, Mazoe orange, and let alone the tobacco - especially Ridgeback pipe tobacco - nothing in this world comes close. All gone and some barely available.

I see the citizens of Zimbabwe with compassion yet noone has the guts to stand up - everyone i know says his police is everywhere. It is a tragedy since it has so much resources and hard working people - it is a tragedy to see what has become of it.

Zanu-PF and the opposition included are hyenas.

I see the same being the case in my country with top ANC leaders milking the country.


I recall hearing about the massacres in the 80s by the 5th brigade. Bulawayo is just a day's ride from my home. Noone but noone said anything right from African Union to United Nation. TIM was a great pal - he is a master politician. Yet this same very AU chose to sanction Tanzania when Nyerere said enough to Idi Amin and went it to get rid of the tyrant. Everyone condemned Nyerere for his action which crippled his country - BUT - I still give him credit for his leadership despite his economic policies which devastated the country.
Britain said nothing either. In fact in 1994 he even got an honorary knighthood.
 
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per five year elections, presidents, prime ministers... that is a false democracy system borrowed without thinking from britain.

true democracy is direct-democracy, guided by socialism.

you should have asked nelson mandela his views on that former "evil dictatorship" ( and direct-democracy ) in north africa.

Britain doesn't have a 2 year maximum term. That is American. The PM of Britain can remain in office for as many terms as elected. Socialism can constitute a policy in democracy. Mandela also supported a 2 term maximum period of office and ensured that was written in the South African constitution

I went there right a month after independence and a few times later. I saw this country from a top notch go downhill to the state it is in. Uncle T.I.M is in power and his cronies/wife controlling everything. T.I.M (That Idiot Mugabe).
I still have the Zim dollars when 1$ meant a lot; now it is a memory of a bygone era.

Tanganda tea, Mazoe orange, and let alone the tobacco - especially Ridgeback pipe tobacco - nothing in this world comes close. All gone and some barely available.

I see the citizens of Zimbabwe with compassion yet noone has the guts to stand up - everyone i know says his police is everywhere. It is a tragedy since it has so much resources and hard working people - it is a tragedy to see what has become of it.

Zanu-PF and the opposition included are hyenas.

I see the same being the case in my country with top ANC leaders milking the country.


I recall hearing about the massacres in the 80s by the 5th brigade. Bulawayo is just a day's ride from my home. Noone but noone said anything right from African Union to United Nation. TIM was a great pal - he is a master politician. Yet this same very AU chose to sanction Tanzania when Nyerere said enough to Idi Amin and went it to get rid of the tyrant. Everyone condemned Nyerere for his action which crippled his country - BUT - I still give him credit for his leadership despite his economic policies which devastated the country.

Sadly I must agree with you. If you South Africans don't do something about the ANC then you are heading down the same road as Zimbabwe
 
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