Zimbabwe Inflation Tops 100,000 Percent

AP ^ | 02/21/08 | Angus Shaw

[GOPJ]

I rather enjoy having a token bit of foreign currency. Not looking for investments in any form. I just like having some paper money from other countries - especially unusual looking, or otherwise interesting currency.

You can have a boatload of the stuff for a hundred dollars - wait, I mean $50, no, $20...

[LambSlave]

100,000% here, a 100,000% there, and soon you’re talking about real money...

[reagan_fanatic]

Wait an hour or two and they’ll pay you to take it.

[TigerLikesRooster]

In this pace, we will soon run out of trees to print them.

[No Dems 2004]

“We have seen our future, and it is Zimbabwe.:-)”

This is what happens when you have a crazy lunatic at the helm of a government. Robert Mugabe is in the same league as Idi Amin and is a modern-day Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. This is what dictatorial rule brings you, too. Let’s pray the world always remembers this.

[No Dems 2004]

This is why the US Dollar is used as a standard form of currency in much (or most) of Africa. If you go to Mozambique, for instance, they have 3 currencies from which to choose: the local Meticas (banana republic money), the South African Rand (much more stable but still volatile) and the US Dollar. I’m sure that Zimbabwe must use the US Dollar to keep a measure of stability in the country (as there’s virtually none). If wealthy South Africa were not their neighbor, I can’t imagine how Zimbabwe wouldn’t be starved to death by now.

[TLI]

The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the [British] South Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded more complete voting rights for the black African majority in the country (then called Rhodesia). UN sanctions and a guerrilla uprising finally led to free elections in 1979 and independence (as Zimbabwe) in 1980. Robert MUGABE, the nation's first prime minister, has been the country's only ruler (as president since 1987) and has dominated the country's political system since independence. His chaotic land redistribution campaign, which began in 2000, caused an exodus of white farmers, crippled the economy, and ushered in widespread shortages of basic commodities. Ignoring international condemnation, MUGABE rigged the 2002 presidential election to ensure his reelection. The ruling ZANU-PF party used fraud and intimidation to win a two-thirds majority in the March 2005 parliamentary election, allowing it to amend the constitution at will and recreate the Senate, which had been abolished in the late 1980s. In April 2005, Harare embarked on Operation Restore Order, ostensibly an urban rationalization program, which resulted in the destruction of the homes or businesses of 700,000 mostly poor supporters of the opposition, according to UN estimates. President Mugabe in June 2007 instituted price controls on all basic commodities causing panic buying and leaving store shelves empty for months. In October 2007, Constitutional Amendment 18 came into effect allowing for harmonized presidential and parliamentary elections, shortening the length of the presidential term to five years, and moving up the date for parliamentary elections. General elections are expected in March 2008.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html

Q: What did Zimbabweans use to light their houses before candles?
A: Electricity.

[Redleg Duke]

Yep, and that is Obama’s blueprint for us!

[Texas Federalist]

Their treasury seal a picture of a pile of rocks. No joke. Google a picture of the currency.

[Leftism is Mentally Deranged]

Communist dictators love to reduce the value of savings, assets, property and money. This strips wealth from anyone who worked hard and accumulated some assets. This makes everyone “equal”. If I have assets worth $0.50 and you have assets worth $50, we’re equally poor. Thus one of the goals of communism is reached: everyone equally miserable, no one having more than anyone else.

Dictators and other politicians blame this on a mysterious entity called “inflation”. They should take the blame on themselves, because their policies cause the loss of value.

Politicians and other communists love inflation, because it makes everyone dependent on the collectivity, the government. Everyone except the party elite and the politicians who created inflation.

[Redmen4ever]

Looks like they have a lot of Change going on in Zimbabwe.

[uncbob]

All the Democrats from Carter to Clinton have praised Mugabe and put him in office and supported him and kept him in power. Mugabe is a brutal evil dictator who has murdered millions and destroyed his country’s economy. The Democrats should take responsibility for what they have done.

Classic liberal behaviour

Ruin things- cause death and misery- then on to the next cause and repeat the same thing and never take responsibility or admit they were wrong

[uncbob]

This is what happens when you have a crazy lunatic at the helm of a government. Robert Mugabe is in the same league as Idi Amin and is a modern-day Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin. This is what dictatorial rule brings you, too. Let’s pray the world always remembers this.

Actually Hitler stabilized the economy in Germany

[BfloGuy]

The US dollar has lost about 50% of it’s value since Bush took office.

That's its foreign exchange value which is very different from its purchasing power in the U.S. which has fallen about 19% in 8 years.

[steve-b]

[monday]

“That’s its foreign exchange value which is very different from its purchasing power in the U.S. which has fallen about 19% in 8 years.”

It’s leading indicator. Real inflation always follows albeit with a lag.

[goldstategop]

There are no goods available to buy at any price in Zimbabwe.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[Moonman62]

Alan Greenspan is available. He’ll blame their inflation on economic overheating.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

What does Obama think about all of this, or is this asking too much from Obama?