Brother, Can You Spare a Billion?
by Jeff Davis
If you ever have a yen to check out the glories of black rule, Zimbabwe is the place and the website here is a good resource. According to a Reuters article “Zimbabwe’s central bank will introduce new higher-value 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar notes on Monday as part of a desperate fight against spiralling hyperinflation… Zimbabweans are suffering chronic shortages of meat, maize, fuel and other basic commodities due to the collapse of the once prosperous economy, which critics blame on President Robert Mugabe’s policies, including his violent seizure of white-owned farms.”
What kind of nation destroys its own food supply? Probably somewhat more primitive cousins of a nation like ours, that destroys its own energy supply by threatening to bomb and invade our primary suppliers.
Reuters goes on: “Central bank Governor Gideon Gono announced on Wednesday that inflation had surpassed 2.2 million percent, though some economists put it much higher. In a notice in the official Herald newspaper on Saturday, Gono said the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe would introduce 100 billion dollar special agro-cheques (notes), to help consumers who currently need to carry large wads of cash even for simple transactions. This new $100 billion (2,214 pound) special agro-cheque will go into circulation on Monday, the notice said. The central bank has been printing higher denomination banknotes to keep pace with soaring prices. The most valuable bank note currently in circulation is worth Z$50 billion.” (more…)