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William

^actually, "brown-outs" were.

mad_dog

He is scum but lets be honest if he hadn't kicked out white farmers with British heritage most of us wouldn't even know his name. As far as African Big Men go he iis a pussy cat.

Texpat

He's exercising his sovereign right as leader of the country. Really, is anyone seriously in favor of external (especially) western intervention?

I sense that the Teak Door collective consciousness would be deeply against any intervention because he's just a normal African dictator doing what many African dictators do. If he choses to rule with an iron fist -- maybe that's what holds them together. I don't sense that the media fervor and endless images of a white fella pushing a shopping cart down endless shop aisles with nary a scrap of crust while their leader lives in palatial spreads complete with fountains and pasty balding heads on sticks leading up his drive -- that's not nearly enough to even get irritated about. Is it?

Is it really anybody's business that a McDonald's Happy Meal costs two and a half million Zimbabwe goobers?

Yes, best to just let Ban Ki-moon stand off at a distance and call him names and make faces at him -- maybe a really harshly worded resolution.

I'm getting the hang of this ...

Mid

Zimbabwe introduces new currency


In January, the bank introduced a Z$10m note

Zimbabwe's central bank has said it will introduce a new currency on 1 August as part of efforts to fight the effects of hyperinflation.

The governor, Gideon Gono, has announced zeros will be lopped off the Zimbabwe dollar, making 10bn dollars one dollar.

Only last week, the government introduced the Z$100bn note.

Inflation is officially running at more than 2,000,000%, but economists believe the real rate is far higher.

"The Zimbabwe dollar will be redenominated by a factor of one to 10, which means we are removing 10 zeros from our monetary value. Ten billion dollars today will be reduced to Z$1... effective from 1 August," Mr Gono said in a television broadcast.

He said the high rate constrained the operations of the country's computer systems.

Computers, calculators and banks' cash machines have not been able to handle basic transactions in billions and trillions of dollars. The new Z$100bn note introduced last week was not enough to buy a loaf of bread. So far this year, Zimbabwe has been forced to print Z$100m, Z$250m and Z$500m notes in rapid succession, now mostly worthless.

news.bbc.co.uk

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William

in order to achieve that you need, in some way, to cancel the notes in circulation. And I thought they had no new paper source.

Butterfly

and with no paper, this is getting funnier

they should go back to barter, much more efficient at this stage

AntRobertson

Pffft, paper-schmaper! Couple of bottles of Twink/White Out/Tipex and those pesky zero's are gone, Bob's yer despotic uncle and ruler of a Southern African nation!


Woohoo I'm rich!! I've got about Z$200,000 sitting in my wallet right now...

... Oh. Fuck.

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... allegedly

Mid

ten will get you one that the barter system is what the great unwashed are using ...........

William

According to my old man, who used to be with the World Bank, inflation is probably 15 million %; but he did qualify that statement by saying today inflation is at, which was about two weeks ago

Spin

Was chatting on MSN the other day with a pal back in the UK. He's black, the conversation predictably went towards the cost of living here and there, and the rise in prices. I joked about bringing in Mugabe to help out at the Bank of England to fix the inflation problem. His words were "we got enough stupid niggers here without bringing in the worlds biggest"

Bugs

Some are resorting to the use of the Rand or the US dollar:

http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/?p=1404

Vendors illegally accept forex

Quote:

A visit by a Zimbabwe Guardian reporter revealed that traders have stopped taking the Zimbabwean dollar for payment of goods and services, opting for the South African Rand or US dollar instead.

Butterfly

I wonder how it will all end ? probably with Mugabe burnt on a stick

we can only hope,

bkkandrew

Amid echoes of the action taken by Germany to halt the hyper-inflation of the 1920s, people in Zimbabwe will tomorrow start to use a new currency introduced by the central bank to halt the African country's runaway increase in the cost of living.

Gideon Gono, the central bank governor with the unenviable record of presiding over the world's highest inflation rate, said he was no longer prepared to continue printing notes of ever higher denominations. "Ten billion dollars today, will as from August 1 be revalued to one zimdollar dollar," Gideon Gono said earlier this week."

The move follows an increase in Zimbabwean inflation to 2.2m%, with a loaf of bread costing 200bn dollars in Harare this week, and represents the government's attempt to get to grips with the economic crisis in what was once one of sub-Saharan Africa's richest countries.

Notes of higher and higher denominations have been put into circulation since the start of the year and the new $100bn bank note came into circulation in Zimbabwe only 10 days ago.

Gono has now decided, however, that the only way to restore confidence in the currency is to follow the example of the president of the Reichsbank, Horace Greeley Hjalmar Schacht, who helped bring an end to Germany's financial crisis by striking nine zeros from the currency and turning 10bn old marks into one new Rentenmark. Germany's inflationary problem in 1923 was even worse than Zimbabwe's today, with workers being paid three times a day and families using worthless bank notes to burn furnaces because it was cheaper than buying firewood.

Prices were rising so rapidly in the second half of 1923 that it was almost impossible to keep track of inflation, but one estimate puts it as high as 854,000,000,000%.

Gono also announced this week measures to boost Zimbabwe's agricultural sector, since the rapid decline in farm production has been an important reason for the country's descent into economic chaos. Germany's recovery after the 1923 hyper-inflation was based on the success of the central bank in restoring confidence in the country's economy, then as now the most powerful in Europe.

Zimbabwe issues new currency to tackle inflation | Business | guardian.co.uk

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A funny thing happened today - Ant trolls, stalks, prevokes and generally upsets approximately 15 members of the board, yet Noodles goes to jail. Perhaps it was a dream...
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Spin

How will we know when he's done?

Norton

WTF has a new currency got to due with runaway inflation.

sabang

^ Well, it saves paper and printing costs, but makes no difference to the underlying syndrome.
Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia etc, now Zim. It has never worked.

bkkandrew

sabang

ZIMBABWE'S President, Robert Mugabe, has been forced to return home following intense political pressure from the Chinese Communist Party not to attend Friday night's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Herald understands high-powered lobbying from political leaders who will be attending the ceremony prompted the highest levels of the Chinese Government to convince him not to attend. It is understood he had arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday but could get no further.

The two countries have a close relationship and it took intense persuasion to convince Mr Mugabe to return to Zimbabwe and not cause embarrassment to the host country.

Latest News - News - Olympics - watoday.com.au

I'm sure him and Grace had a nice shopping spree in HK to console themselves.

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