| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| topeka |
Posted - 05/16/2008 : 23:20:58
Would someone please explain to me how Zimbabwe slipped into its present hyperinflationary state?
How far down the same road is the U.S.??
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| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| topeka |
Posted - 05/18/2008 : 22:51:34
Cody, excellent post......the situation make a little more sense now. |
| Cody8404 |
Posted - 05/18/2008 : 16:49:57
Rhodesia gained its indpendance from Great Britan as one of the last colonies to go from British to local rule in 1980. Mugabe was elected that year.
There is a little episode that happened in the late 1980s in which Mugabe sent the countries military out to gather up all the people who had not voted for him or who had oppossed him after he was elected. After they were gather a few million people disappeared, think of a killing field.
The laws that striped the white people of the ability to own land or businesses came about in the late 1990's. This was a thinly veiled reason to take the property of anyone who had anything and make it government ruled.
There are many cases of prosperous farms, providing work for hundreds and thousands and much of the food grown in Africa, these were taken away, without compensation, and given to the people who had been working the farms.
All the people who had money, real money left the country.
On paper this sounds good. People were given land, seeds, and the homes they were paying rent on before. They were free to run thier farms anyway they wanted.
So they ate the seeds, cut all the tree down and had nothing left.
About 2003 the governement had nothing, nothing was being grown, manufactured, or produced in any way. They still needed money for debts, paying pensioners, paying the army etc. They just turned on the printing presses.
As natural laws go if I have millions of $Z and I am really hungary and want a burger there are two of us bidding for one burger it was not uncommon to spend $Z 1,000 for a burger. Well now the new price has been set. Yesterday it $Z 1. today $Z 1,000. But my check from the governement is not big enough, "give me more, and more and more." And they do.
Last a heard an unadorned Hamburger, meat, bun and ketsup was $Z five million.
Who can afford a single burger?
The schools, hospitals, anything publich has been shut down. The government has issued price controls and they will go into a shop and make the owner sell items. The official price for this fridge is $Z 10,000, so I will buy it. The real inflation adjusted price is multibillions, but I will buy it at the offical price. If you don't sell it to my I will throw you in prison, what do you think they do? They sell until the store has nothing left.
Senators have been thrown in jail for having 5 pounds of rice at a time because they are hoarding food.
Sorry, I don't recall many more details. Most of what I have learned has come from the BBC news, but like any news source the information they have range from correct to mistaken to down right lies.
I do what is happening in Zimbabwe and Chile as things I anticipate happening here inthe US in the note too distant future. My favorite line is from Don on http://www.coloradogold.com/ "protect yourself." |
| CajunCoin |
Posted - 05/18/2008 : 14:22:48
Southern Rhodesia morphed into Zimbabwe and then the Europeans who lived there were told they would have to sell their farms and mines to the govt to be broken up for redistribution, well the local workforce did not know how to farm and Zimbabwe went from being a breadbasket country to a food importer! So much for land redistribution and the farms have fell into ruin.
The mines were nationalized and looted for their machinery and there goes nation output of gold and silver!
Massive radical redistribution of the wealth doesn't work, most countires lose traction and the wealth producing industries die off or move.
Do you really want to buy bonds from a nation of goathearders?
Mugabe failed, he would be smart to look at South Afica and see how they did not break up the nation but kept it whole while undergoing integration. |
| topeka |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 15:24:09
How many years did it take for Zimbabwe currency to be inflated into worthlessness?
Is it enevitable that the USD follow the same demise?
When a fiat currency is inflated to worthlessness how is the system restored?? ...by simply printing a totally new fiat currancy and proclaiming it real money??? |
| Cody8404 |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 14:07:50
Sorry, After I posted the last I read the article about inflation being over 165,000%. This would take your money to worthless in about 20 minutes. |
| Cody8404 |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 14:05:36
It started with the government printing more money to pay its debts. They just keep printing. The last inflation rate I heard was over 3500% percent per year. This means you money goes to worthless in about 4 hours.
This might help also.
http://search.bbc.co.uk/cgi-bin/search/results.pl?uri=%2F&scope=all&go=toolbar&q=zimbabwe+inflation |
| Art Tatum |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 13:43:41
jesse jackson pushed it through!
although he had help from michael,shoeless joe,bo and reggie~ |
| HoardCopperByTheTon |
Posted - 05/17/2008 : 00:25:19
I believe it had something to do with printing money.
We have already been there. We tried it early in the history of this country. Have you ever heard the expression "not worth a Continental?"  |
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