Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Zimbabweans hit by 257% inflation: Will gold coins help?
AP ^ | 8/18/22

Posted on 08/19/2022 3:47:18 AM PDT by EBH

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — After working as an overnight security guard at a church in Harare’s impoverished Mabvuku township, Jeffrey Carlos rushes home to help his wife fetch water to sell.

Prolonged water shortages mean most residents of the capital city of more than 2.4 million must source their own water. Carlos is lucky because the property he rents has a well and his family can haul up buckets of water to sell to neighbors.

“This is our gold,” he says of the well water.

“If we are lucky, we can sell up to 12 buckets of water (per day) for $2,” said the 50-year-old father of three. That’s about enough money to buy the family’s food for the day, he said.

Rising prices and a fast depreciating currency have pushed many Zimbabweans to the brink, reminding people of when the southern African country faced world-record inflation of 5 billion% in 2008. With inflation jumping from 191% in June to 257% in July, many Zimbabweans fear the country is heading back to such hyperinflation.

o prevent a return of such economic disaster, President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government last month took the unprecedented step of introducing gold coins as legal tender. The country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, said that because the value of the one-ounce, 22-carat coins would be determined by the international price of gold they will help tame the runaway inflation and stabilize the nation’s currency

(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last
Gold coins as currency? Let's see if it works.
1 posted on 08/19/2022 3:47:18 AM PDT by EBH
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: EBH

Try to not over spend might help.


2 posted on 08/19/2022 3:48:46 AM PDT by Jonty30 (Some men want tod watch the world burn. It is they that want you to buy an electric car.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EBH

Zimbabweans hit by 257% inflation: Will gold coins help?

Definitely yes, but no one in the country can afford gold or gold coins because their currency is worthless.


3 posted on 08/19/2022 3:49:29 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EBH

Gold’s a shitty currency. It will lead to even higher inflation. Silver is better. Last days of the Mugabi junta, Rhodesians were melting the coins because the metal was many millions of times more valuable than the value of the currency.


4 posted on 08/19/2022 3:52:38 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EBH

Gold is too valuable for everyday coinage.

They will need a gold to silver peg for daily purchases.

A 1.5 gram Mexican “1945 Two Peso” coin that is worth about $80 is smaller than a dime. Actually it’s about the size of the rim of a .45 ACP shell.


5 posted on 08/19/2022 3:57:59 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

Coming soon to America.

Make the currency worthless (crisis) and the solution is total government control. Those opposed are enemies of the State.


6 posted on 08/19/2022 3:58:04 AM PDT by TigerClaws
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: HYPOCRACY

See 5. There has to be a gold to silver peg. Gold for big purchases (cars, houses), silver for every day use.


7 posted on 08/19/2022 3:58:46 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: EBH

Does anyone know why a gold coin isn’t worth more in Zimbabwe, with it’s 257% inflation rate, than in Cheyenne, Wyoming with a 8% inflation rate?


8 posted on 08/19/2022 3:58:50 AM PDT by JonPreston
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PIF

They are anticipating a “trickle down” effect in the economy. Sounds sort of capitalist to me...at least I have heard that phrase before.

I would be curious how they are minting the gold coins and the amounts.


9 posted on 08/19/2022 3:59:21 AM PDT by EBH ( 1776-2021 May God Save Us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: HYPOCRACY

Interesting.


10 posted on 08/19/2022 4:01:01 AM PDT by EBH ( 1776-2021 May God Save Us.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: TigerClaws

The ultimate enemy is programmable central bank govt-run digital currency.

Programmable meaning, for example, if the govt sets a “maximum travel radius” during the next “pandemic,” you will not be able to buy gas for your car more than that radius from your home.

Or you can’t buy a gun or ammo because the govt decides you already have enough.

Or can’t buy food because it must be rationed for “equity.”


11 posted on 08/19/2022 4:01:29 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

They’re so much better off without those pesky white people...


12 posted on 08/19/2022 4:03:31 AM PDT by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jonty30

Whitey suffer enough for his sins yet?


13 posted on 08/19/2022 4:03:49 AM PDT by ToxicMasculinity ("Free country"? Good morning, Rip.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: JonPreston

Gold is just gold, silver is just silver. (Assuming they are not counterfeit.)

It doesn’t matter if you are in Harare, Zurich, or Cheyanne.

Think in gold and silver values, not in dollars, rubles etc.

Let the banksters and politicians worry about how their fiat currencies are devaluing compared to real money, gold and silver.


14 posted on 08/19/2022 4:04:04 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: EBH

I’m not worried. I have a couple of those Zimbabwean Billion Dollar bills.


15 posted on 08/19/2022 4:06:59 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Travis McGee

Thanks. There is a sort of peg. Silver has always been a toxic proxy for gold. It goes up quicker and goes down even more quickly.

But yes, I can see that separation of uses.

Ironically silver has a massive industrial use compared to gold and also rots away.


16 posted on 08/19/2022 4:07:29 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

Piker. I have some 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 notes.


17 posted on 08/19/2022 4:08:25 AM PDT by HYPOCRACY (This is the dystopian future we've been waiting for!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: HYPOCRACY

That makes you a gazillionaire.


18 posted on 08/19/2022 4:10:50 AM PDT by ComputerGuy (Heavily-medicated for your protection)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]

To: HYPOCRACY

Silver corrodes in salt water, but in dry storage it’s fine.

Historically the gold-silver ratio was about 1-20. By historical measures, silver is “undervalued” with the ratio now at about 100-1.

In olden times, govts set an official ratio, so that business could be conducted from small to large in a seamless manner. The official peg would last until major new discoveries put more gold or silver into circulation, and govts would eventually reset the peg.

Today, the dollar values of both gold and silver are artificially manipulated, but I think it’s safe to say that if fiat currencies collapsed and we were forced by default onto a gold standard, the value of silver would be much higher relative to gold, just due to the scarcity of silver coinage for conducting daily transactions.


19 posted on 08/19/2022 4:14:01 AM PDT by Travis McGee (EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: ComputerGuy

Their paper notes are going to get very long to fit in all the zeros.

Somewhere I have a Zimb paper note, it may be a million and I think it was worth about 40 dollars when I got it a long time ago.


20 posted on 08/19/2022 4:16:47 AM PDT by Doctor Congo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson