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Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe

This is no joke. This is a 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar note. Last year they had an inflation rate over 79 billion percent.



3 comments:

ArmChairEconomist said...

So Doc, what is the remedy for an economy in such a situation?

What was the course of action in the Weimar Republic?

Randall Parker said...

The short answer is REGIME CHANGE! More later...

Randall Parker said...

Armie: I don't know my German history like I should, but around the world they have tried different things. Argentina years and years ago swapped out "old pesos" for "new pesos" at the rate of 10,000 to 1 if I remember correctly. They also tried a currency board around 2000-01 that blew apart in just a short period of time. Dollarization/Euroization or insisting on gold for payment is what they do now in Zimbabwe. Remember Panama has been dollarized for over a century and has never had problems with inflation like all the rest of Latin America. The only alternative Zimbabwe faces if they wish to have their own domestic currency is to start over with someone new with a credible central bank that will insure the store of value function of money against all enemies foreign and domestic so that their currency will remain acceptable as a means of payment. Or in other words, they are screwed.