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kavajava
Penny Collector Member
USA
296 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2008 : 13:21:02
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| A pound of copper would be worth about $4, which would be around 40 billion Zimbabwe dollars, which could get you a bit over two dozen eggs (based on the exchange rate a couple days ago--probably less now). |
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NDFARMER
Penny Pincher Member
USA
225 Posts |
 Posted - 06/27/2008 : 14:13:17
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quote:
Originally posted by kavajava
A pound of copper would be worth about $4, which would be around 40 billion Zimbabwe dollars, which could get you a bit over two dozen eggs (based on the exchange rate a couple days ago--probably less now).
Kind of makes me think all the more that lugging these bags of unsorted pennies down into the basement and then lugging the zincers back up the stairs and back to the bank are really going to be worth it someday. |
COPPER - the "poormans" precious metal!!! |
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Nickelless
Penny Hoarding Member
USA
818 Posts |
Posted - 06/27/2008 : 17:46:42
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| I wonder how much tangible resources--food, land, etc.--is available in Zimbabwe for those lucky enough to have a little silver or copper or gold. Or has Mugabe confiscated everything, not just the land? |
Bid your heart out on my copper cent auctions : http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZyellowbanks42301 |
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silverhalide
Member
28 Posts |
Posted - 07/01/2008 : 12:40:07
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| The exchange rate is 12.226 billion per USD so roughly they are experiencing inflation at a rate of 20% per week. |
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kavajava
Penny Collector Member
USA
296 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 00:00:43
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Think about that...20% per week...
now go and buy some silver, or sort some pennies. |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
1097 Posts |
Posted - 07/03/2008 : 07:47:10
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It is interesting and even helpful to look at the problems in Zimbabwe and try and draw correlations to the US. Heck, I like to go down that path myself from time to time, but always when doing so I keep in the back of my mind that the US is NOT Zimbabwe.
So here are a few important differences to keep in mind:
1. The US is a major food exporter.
2. The US has many, many natural resources beyond what Zimbabwe has.
3. The US is a major if not the major military superpower.
4. The US has nuclear weapons and technology and is a leader in space technology.
5. Every country in the world has some investment in the US and/or the US dollar.
Maybe a better correlation to what might happen here would be the collapse of Russia, but in any case things will play out here differently than Zimbabwe for sure. Russia had a complete collapse, reorganized and is coming back strong. Why? Because the basic resources that made Russia strong in the first place were still there after the collapse. They just needed somebody (Putin) to come along and pick up what pieces were left and put them back together. As they say history does not repeat, but it rhymes.
Probably, the scariest thing in the US or in any major powerhouse country that suffers an economic collapse is that a power void is created and there is no telling who will step forward to fill that void. The masses in desperation will grab at anything that gives them hope. So you are as likely to get the next Hitler as to get the next George Washington.  |
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kavajava
Penny Collector Member
USA
296 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2008 : 14:30:15
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quote:
Originally posted by horgad
It is interesting and even helpful to look at the problems in Zimbabwe and try and draw correlations to the US.
Probably, the scariest thing in the US or in any major powerhouse country that suffers an economic collapse is that a power void is created and there is no telling who will step forward to fill that void. The masses in desperation will grab at anything that gives them hope. So you are as likely to get the next Hitler as to get the next George Washington.
Some good points horgad--it is too easy to look at Zimbabwe and interpolate it to here--we do need to keep in mind the differences (which isn't to say it may not get really bad here).
Also--regarding a power void--I read somewhere that there are basically three types of governments: monarchies, democracies, and dictatorships--the article went on to say (and I cannot remember the reasons, but do remember that they made sense at the time) that the next likely rule in the US was by a dictator.
Thoughts? |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
1097 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2008 : 20:13:38
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...that the next likely rule in the US was by a dictator.
Thoughts?
Don't we already have that now.  OK maybe not, but the executive branch of the Federal Government has way more now than was ever intended and nobody seems to care enough to do much about it... |
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swusc
Penny Collector Member
420 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2008 : 00:52:18
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quote:
Also--regarding a power void--I read somewhere that there are basically three types of governments: monarchies, democracies, and dictatorships--the article went on to say (and I cannot remember the reasons, but do remember that they made sense at the time) that the next likely rule in the US was by a dictator.
Thoughts?
Well there are other forms of government. A republic would be another one. We had/have a republic of one form, but it is slowing becoming a democracy. All three of those forms of government are very bad.
monarchies and dictatorships are bad because finding a good, honest, fair, smart ruler that can handle running things fairly is about like winning the lottery. The problems with giving few total control is very easy to see. It is a very bad idea for most of the people under that form of government.
"pure" Deomcracies are bad because most people aren't smart enough to run a country. Yet you give total power to the masses. When you let the average rule, then you get average results. Let's be honest average isn't to smart. (40% don't finish high school, 20% can't find the U.S. on a map, 4% can't read and write, few really understand economics, few understand warfare, and so on. Heck how many people really understand all that stuff? I know nothing about fighting a war) The masses will over time become lazy and steal resources from those that have them. Look at the Roman empire...They were very successful, and they allowed themselves to basically enslave the whole known world to support themselves, but I don't think the world would let that happen now. At least I hope it wouldn't. Yet, with all that cheap labor they still collapsed from within.
So we have some that oppresses the people and others that encourages failure. Is anyone really shocked that the founding fathers didn't want any of the three? The set up the rule of law and spread out the power to protect the people, but encourage people to work to get ahead. So whenever you heard people wanting to give more power to the government, having judges write laws from the bench, congress handing out powers to enact laws/wars to the executive branch, and so on scream bloody murder. When you hear them saying democracy is great, remember that it isn't. A pure democracy isn't that great unless you are lazy and stupid. The U.S.A. wasn't founded as a democracy. It was a republic where the rule of law and property property rights existed. A pure democracy has no property rights and no rule of law... it is the rule of majority wins.
Have you ever wondered why the electoral college exist? Why senators were picked by state governments before the early 1900s? Why the one house that was picked by the masses had shorter terms and larger numbers? The founding fathers didn't want to give the masses to much say. They wanted the masses to pick the smarter people and them pick the smarter people to be President and Senators. Then they didn't want any one group to have enough power to screw things up or steal from the people.
Off topic, but do you ever wonder about the right to bear arms? It was setup to allow the people to over throw the government if needed. IT WAS WRITTEN BY PEOPLE THAT JUST OVERTHROWN A GOVERNMENT. Yet, we let the government restrict the guns and weapons we can have and own. People the founding fathers wouldn't have had a problem with people having assault rifles or bombs or any of that stuff. Those people had war ships and cannons. Heck our Navy in the War of 1812 was mostly private ships fighting/stealing for America. Lets see They were ok with people have battle ships of that time period, but they would freak out over someone that had a gun that can shoot a few rounds a second. Let me call bull crap on that right now. Anyone that says otherwise is either an idiot or just has an opinion to push. Heck I don't like some crap people say, but that doesn't give me the right to push/have the government restrict it. The media has the power to kill just as much as guns do. They might have more.
We have a great country. A lot of smart people help build this country-- Millions of soliders fought, suffered, and many died so that we could live and be free (under the rule of some laws). Yet, I see us trying to undo what made us Great. Punishing hard work, rewarding the lazy, removing freedoms, trying to restrict adults, and so on. Government isn't to make people perfect or make the world fair and great. Government is there to make the planning field fair under some set of rules. Anything more than that is a crime against the human race.
-SWUSC
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`Everybody is ignorant. Only on different subjects.' Will Rogers
"This is the shabby secret of the welfare statists' tirades against gold. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the "hidden" confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights. If one grasps this, one has no difficulty in understanding the statists' antagonism toward the gold standard." Alan Greenspan, 1966. |
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Ant
Penny Collector Member
281 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2008 : 18:09:24
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quote:
Originally posted by Nickelless
I wonder how much tangible resources--food, land, etc.--is available in Zimbabwe for those lucky enough to have a little silver or copper or gold. Or has Mugabe confiscated everything, not just the land?
The impression I get is that even if someone does have the means to buy something, if Mugabe doesn't want him to have it, he won't get it. And whatever he's already got, he won't have it for long. I don't even know how much is left there that's worth having -- a lot of the infrastructure has decayed.
I met two people who came here from Zimbabwe in 2006. If they had stayed in Zimbabwe, they would be dead. One of them was taken into custody and raped by Mugabe's people. As bad as the inflation is down there, there are a lot of people in the country who have got their hands full trying not to be killed. I think they're just in shock. |
"No, man. You gotta keep goin'. What am I gonna do? Quit? That's not an option. Life's a garden. Dig it? You make it work for you. You never give up, man. That's my philosophy." --Joe Dirt |
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kavajava
Penny Collector Member
USA
296 Posts |
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horgad
1000+ Penny Miser Member
1097 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2008 : 12:51:46
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quote:
Originally posted by kavajava
Now it appears that they are about to run out of paper to print the money on...no kidding.
Here is the link--it is worth reading!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-money14-2008jul14,0,3947241.story?page=1
If they don't figure out a replacement soon, maybe their inflationary collapse will do an about face and head straight for a deflationary depression...talk about whiplash.
------------Quote----------
The result on the streets was an immediate cash crunch.
"If you think this currency shortage is bad, wait two weeks. By then it will be a disaster," |
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redneck
Penny Pincher Member
223 Posts |
Posted - 07/16/2008 : 13:45:53
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Zimbabwe's economic meltdown harks back to the collapse of its major export industry, commercial farming, after Mugabe's controversial land reform program early in the decade. That left the nation starved of foreign exchange, but government spending went on.
How did it do that? It printed money. But printing more and more money without an increase in productivity fueled rampant hyperinflation.
As hyperinflation spiraled last year, Fidelity printed million-dollar notes, then 5-million, 10-million, 25-million, 50-million. This year, it has been forced to print 100-million, 250-million and 500-million notes in rapid succession, all now practically worthless. The highest denomination is now 50 billion Zimbabwean dollars (worth a U.S. dollar on the street).
Despite the recent currency shortage, the Zimbabwean dollar has continued to slide against the U.S. dollar and shopkeepers are still increasing their prices steeply. The price of the state-owned Herald newspaper has leaped from 200,000 Zimbabwean dollars early this month to 25 billion now. Before the crunch, a beer at a bar in Harare, the capital, cost 15 billion Zimbabwean dollars. At 5 p.m. July 4, it cost 100 billion ($4 at the time) in the same bar.
An hour later, the price had gone up to 150 billion ($6).
A husband to his wife;
Honey, could you pick up a case of beer,I left $3,600,000,000,000.00 on the nightstand under the lamp.
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Edited by - redneck on 07/16/2008 13:54:14 |
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Dinner For 1 in Zimbabwe
