Zimbabwe’s low inflationary days are over. Just a few months ago, inflation was barely over 100,00%, a figure that is paltry to today’s rate of over a million percent. Some facts:

Strongman, Dictator-For-Life Robert Mugabe’s destruction of the once thriving economy is nearly complete.

A loaf of bread costs 30 billion Zimbabwean dollars.

Bills are only good for a few weeks before they lose their value.

Billions have been replaced in most businesses by “quadrillions” (a million billion).

A can of Coke costs 15 billion Zimbabwean dollars. Vending machines are long gone. Who carries a billion coins with them?

In the latest twist, German money printer, Giesecke & Devrient cancelled its contract with the Zimbabwean government. This is notable for the company that had no trouble printing the tickets for Hitler’s 1936 Olympics and did business with General Francisco Franco.

If you are looking who to blame beyond Mugabe then look no farther than the South African government who has been loathe to even criticize Mugabe, regardless of what he does to his people. In fact, with notable exceptions, African leaders have thus far failed to condemn a fellow leader. This is just one more reason why Africa is doomed and why most aid simply perpetuates a fundamentally corrupt system. If Bono wanted to make a real difference he’d be rallying African “leaders” to deal with one of their own.

Source: WSJ

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm by Insider and is filed under Loons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.