

Zimbabwe introduces new $50 billion note - dcurtis
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/01/10/zimbawe.currency/index.html

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jpcx01
There's a lesson to be learnt here. Printing money = Inflation. I know it
seems obvious, but the Federal Reserve has printed about 800 billion dollars
so far, and if our government ends up with a 2 trillion dollar deficit in the
next few years, we're going to be seeing the same phenomenon.

It wasn't that long ago (1970s) where inflation in US was 10-15%. Our
population has short memories, and we seem doomed to repeat the mistakes of
the past (vast government spending relative to revenue).

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wheels
It's amazing how thoroughly has been completely destroyed in the last decade.
What I think most first-world readers miss is that Zimbabwe is not one of
those (previously) ultra-poor, undeveloped countries -- it's had a
frighteningly long fall to get to where it is now.

~~~
markessien
Hyperinflation is caused by external countries refusing to invest in a
countries currency, not by internal factors. So the current problem with money
they are having is controlled by external entities.

~~~
gravitycop
Mars has never invested in Earth currency. Therefore, and because of that, the
Earth economy must have continuously experienced hyperinflation.

~~~
markessien
The earth economy is closed, and is not dependent on external planets. The
Zimbabwe economy, like all African economies, is strongly dependent on imports
of manufactured and industrial goods.

If you actually have an argument and you understand the facts of what you want
to argue, then please lay out your points. A silly non-relevant statement does
not contribute to the discussion in any way.

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vaksel
How can an economy survive with such an inflation? How can you work, knowing
that the salary you agreed to at the beginning of the day, is now worth 10
times less

~~~
quantumhobbit
I'd imagine a sort of barter system takes the place of the currency. You could
also try to rely on foreign currencies.

~~~
jwilliams
They actively crack down on those using foreign currency, it's actually
illegal to use foreign currency for transactions there - although of course
everyone does and there is a massive black market for this.

Mugabe also tried to fix the price of common goods - e.g. Bread, Milk, etc.

~~~
jwilliams
Edit: Hmm - Apparently this has changed and they allow foreign currency
trading now.

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iigs
_In August last year, the RBZ slashed ten zeros from the currency. But the
zeroes have bounced back with more vigor._

That means in before August 2008 these would have been
500,000,000,000,000,000,000 notes. Yikes.

~~~
quantumhobbit
When will they start using scientific notation on the notes? I'd invest a few
dollars at whatever exchange rate just to get a hold of some $10^23 notes.

~~~
LogicHoleFlaw
That'd be just about a mole of currency. Yikes.

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iamnotwhite
The tragedy of Zimbabwe is that a functioning, wealth-creating capitalist
system that was evolving towards equal rights for blacks over time was
sacrificed to satisfy the ego of a strong man, who proceeded to wipe out every
trace of capitalism and rule of law, and replaced it with the law of the
jungle. Zimbabwe's whites mostly left, so it is the black population that paid
the biggest most terrible price. Naipaul has chronicled this process in his
books very well.

As a member of an once "inferior" race, I can state with confidence that we
were not inferior, we were just behind in adopting the institutions and
cultural patterns of modernity. The whites were teaching us that - by example
that we could watch and emulate every day. A gradual process of assimilating
those values would have served us well. Kicking the whites out took that
opportunity away.

Yes, none of this politically correct. That doesn't make any of it wrong
either. Yes, there are white racists. Fuck them - _they_ could not have
stopped us from learning. Only _we_ could have, and we did.

~~~
birdseyeview
Are you _sure_ you are not white? Or at least,...antipc?

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=411138>

And you and I both know who he _really_ is, don't we, longtimer?

[EDIT: Rechecked your facebook page. Yep, still white.]

------
abalashov
The interesting thing is that there is probably considerable potential for the
population of Zimbabwe to earn foreign hard currency by selling bank notes of
this kind of denomination (for example, on eBay, if possible) simply because
so many Westerners would find it incredibly novel to obtain one, just for the
sheer amazement factor.

It's an economic opportunity to take advantage of just how bewildering the
situation is.

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callmeed
How long until they have a trillion dollar bill like the one Castro stole from
Homer?

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mattmaroon
Damn, just when I bought the $25 billion of eBay.

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quellhorst
You can already see discontinued $100 billion notes for sale on ebay... 10 for
$40

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ca98am79
man, my site is totally worthless now
<http://www.millionzimbabwedollarhomepage.com>

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kirubakaran
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/ebay-100B>

There seems to be $100B note. What am I missing?

~~~
maneesh
They cut 10 zeros from the currency in august---100B was converted into
whatever 100B/10^10 is, and they restarted from there.

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ckinnan
The world badly needs a hard currency that is independent of political
control.

~~~
mixmax
Keep dreaming..

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sdfx
What a strange attempt to solve their problems. Maybe there is something wrong
with your system if you can't print money fast enough to keep up with
inflation.

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robak
Read it very carefully. This is USA in the future. 800 bilion bail-out -
printed, over 1 trillion budget deficit - printed, another 800 billion bail
out - printed. Only 5% of all the US dollars ever created is in circulation in
the US. Rest of them are deposited in banks of the rest of the world as
I.O.U.s... treasuries (us gov debt) that was bought by foreigners. The very
moment foreigners realize that Treasuries have negative R.O.I. - as it will
become true once treasuries bubble bursts and Fed starts printing to pay them
off... well, this is how the whole Communistic Block collapsed in matter of
months - hyperinflation due to inability of repaying debts. The exactly same
thing will happen with the USA. Nation with no production, no savings and the
biggest debt in the history of the man-kind... this country is going bankrupt.
Kaput!

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opticksversi
Zimbabwe (British-relative) national IQ: 66

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_IQ#National_IQ_and_QHC...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_IQ#National_IQ_and_QHC_values)

~~~
tlrobinson
Zimbabwe president: Robert Mugabe

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe>

I'm pretty sure their government has much more to do with the hyperinflation.

~~~
mynameishere
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man>

Not really a theory in the best repute.

