Posted on 01/11/2009 5:44:18 AM PST by george76
Zimbabwe's central bank will introduce a $50 billion note -- enough to buy just two loaves of bread -- as a way of fighting cash shortages amid spiraling inflation.
Zimbabwe is grappling with hyperinflation now officially estimated at 231 million percent, and its currency is fast losing its value. As of Friday, one U.S. dollar was trading at around ZW$25 billion.
When the government issued a $10 billion note just three weeks ago, it bought 20 loaves of bread. That note now can purchase less than half of one loaf.
Realizing the worthlessness of the currency, the RBZ has allowed most goods and services to be charged in foreign currency. As a result, grocery purchases, government hospital bills, property sales, rent, vegetables and even mobile phone recharge cards are now paid for in foreign currency, as the worthless Zimbabwe dollar virtually ceases to be legal tender.
Once a regional economic model, Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis, with unemployment running at more than 80 percent ...
John Robertson, an economist in Zimbabwe, said he's puzzled by the introduction of the $50 billion and $20 billion notes.
"I am not really sure what these notes would be for," he said. "No one now accepts the local currency. It is a waste of resources to print Zimbabwe dollar notes now. Who accepts a currency that loses value by almost 100 percent daily?"
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The “Fed” is going to keep printing funny money here. Won’t get as bad as Zimbabwe, but expect the dollar to devalue.
Coming to an economy near you.
“Once a regional economic model, Zimbabwe is in the throes of an economic crisis,.......”
And we all know when that was.
I’m torn. On the one hand, stay out of debt and keep your nose clean.
On the other hand, taking out a huge mortgage right before hyperinflation doesn’t sound like a bad idea, if I can pay it all back with a week’s worth of salary!
But I don’t think I’d have the guts to do that anyway. :)
at least we will all be billionaires. That will make funding Palin 2012 easy since it only takes 760 million to buy the white house!
This is what happens when “White Flight” doesn’t stop at the suburbs.
Thats what the us government is doing. taking out huge debt then paying it back with worthless federal reserve notes.
WE LIVE in interesting times unfortunately!
Reporters are SOOOOOOOOOO stupid. They are NOT printing $50,000,000,000 notes because bread costs $25,000,000,000 per loaf! Bread costs $25,000,000,000 per loaf because they are printing $50,000,000,000 notes!!!
Excellent point.
How so? I thought the government was still issuing bonds to raise money.
The only problem is whether you’ll have a week’s salary. To benefit from hyperinflation in this way you need to retain your job with a salary that is constantly raised to track the inflation.
Plus the fact that while hyperinflation might help with debt, it wipes out the value of retirement savings.
Sorry, I don’t see an up-side to hyperinflation, even tongue-in-cheek. It scares the hell out of me.
But then so does deflation. Larry Kudlow thinks Obama’s economics team is going to be sensible about all this and govern from center-left. If he’s right, perhaps we’ll escape the worst on the economic front.
But Kudlow’s tone deaf to the power-grab philosophy that marks the true center of Zero’s worldview. They may be just smart enough to avoid tanking the economy either by inflation or deflation. But they will do so in order to keep it going so that they can indulge in all their social-engineering, control-everyone’s-life schemes.
That scares the hell out of me too.
My profound thanks to all the principled conservatives who sat out the election or voted for a third party candidate.
And who’s going to buy them?
We can expect a One Thousand Bill in our near future.
Well, at least Zimbabwe has a better climate than Detroit.
We used to have a $10,000 bill backed by GOLD! Thanks tp FDR and the Socialistas its now history.
“Won’t get as bad as Zimbabwe”
Why not?
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”~~Ludwig von Mises
“Won’t get as bad as Zimbabwe”
Why not?
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”~~Ludwig von Mises
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