Hyperinflation Chaos: Zimbabwe Forced To Print $200 Million Bills

CNN:

Cash-strapped Zimbabwe revealed plans Saturday to circulate $200 million notes, just days after introducing a $100 million bill, Finance Minister Samuel Mumbengegwi said.

After the $100 million note began circulating on Thursday, the price of a loaf of bread soared from 2 million to 35 million Zimbabwean dollars.

Read the whole story: CNN

Comments

[andhakari]

Mugabe is qualified -- to manufacture toilet paper.

[brooklyncitizen]

Gee looks like Zimbabwens aren't as deserving of Democracy as Iraquis....where is the US military when you need them to overthrow a ruthless dictator?.....oh yeah, no OIL to be liberated in Zimbabwe.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

I guess Zimbabwe is one nation where the show "who wants to be a millionaire" is a flop.

[KarateKid]

No, it's "Who Wants to Be A Trillionaire".

[planetjeffy]

I thought we had cut off Mugabe's paper supply to print more money. It is hard to topple a brutal dictator who rules thru fear and doesn't care about his own his population's welfare.

[mjb5406]

Madman Mugabe is no longer being supplied by the original German company, but now his Chinese buddies are furnishing him banknote paper. Maybe it's melamine tainted.

[FDRJFKLBJ]

the us dollar is going to collapse next. just wait and see

[brooklyncitizen]

really before the yen?
let's place a bet.

[ZimboDude]

Mugabe needs to be forced out

[brooklyncitizen]

No OIL in them there hills.

[acudoc]

Wake up, America. This is the natural end result of a fiat paper currency that is not solidly anchored to gold and/or silver. Banks love to create more money and politicians love to spend it. The poor working shmuck picks up the tab, and the politicians scratch their heads and say "What went wrong?" Stupid economic theories that overlook common sense, how's that for starters?

[Ramirez]

This is not the natural result of a fiat currency. It is the natural result of a brutal African dictatorship that loots property and banishes the productive.

[billbb]

And runs the currency printing presses day and night to fill his own coffers and those of the ruling elite. If you are re-arguing the gold standard fight, you are either 75 or 40 years too late, depending on how you calculate things.

Sad fact is, all money, including gold, is representative currency. Gold is pretty, and often useful, but it has only the value that people are willing to pay for. It is only worth what people will pay for it, and that varies from minute to minute.

[aweissnet]

Did you mean, "It is the natural result of a brutal American dictatorship that loots property and banishes the productive," cuz it's going on here too, and for the same reasons.

acudoc was correct. the sad part is we think this mess is somebody else's problem and we're immune. It's going on.

We're just hoping BO will print up some million dollar bills, huh?

[biwee]

Gee, do you think the private bank named the Federal Reserve Bank will cause a similar problem here in the USA??? While there is some concern now about deflation, and rightly so in the near term,
when the impact of many trillions of dollars created out of thin air is fully realized, there will be very serious inflation in the USA. What will YOU do to protect your position in life when this high inflation hits????

[brooklyncitizen]

Gulp.

When travelling through Zimbabwe in the mid 19-90's the people were so hopeful of their future and their new govt....it is so tragic.Still think about soome of the folks we met there and if they "got out" .

[Benmyoho]

Oh, my God! I lived and worked in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1991-92. The U.S. dollar then fetched seven Zimbabwe dollars. A loaf of bread now for 35 million Zimbabwe dollars? Oh my God!

[MetalCanuck]

See this folks, thats whats coming to all of us and especially America soon. BOTH dems adn repubs are moving in this direction. Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are warning about this (Bipartisan) and people have to wake up and start getting in to gold as your savings.

[killpack]

Well it just might happen the way the Fed keeps printing money for all of these bailouts! Gold, oil, all of that stuff is probably going to make a BIG turnaround sooner or later. And all of those Chinese goods and Indian tech services that everyone is so worried about? Yup, we won't have worry about all of that stuff coming in anymore (not unless you have gold to pay for it). Kinda scary.

[MetalCanuck]

In about a year or two at the most we will see oil and gold make a comeback, especially with the lower production.

[LaHenche]

Funny, the graphic on the front of these bills looks like...a pile of crap. Ironic?

[KillTheMessenger]

"The [Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe] is failing to deliver the demands of market, prices are doubling daily, and that demands more cash," Zimbabwean economist John Robertson said. "The huge price increases are resulting from severe shortages of most goods."

Of course that's the wrong causation. Zimbabwe does not need more worthless paper in circulation. What it lacks is an economy that actually links the value of goods to some numerical relatively constant numerical value of the country's currency. And that simply does not exist. The Reserve Bank printing more money will not change that and one has to wonder what would drive the central bankers to waste paper and in on it (other than standing in front of one of Mugabe's guns).

A bread at a dollar is probably very expensive for an African country, but it shows that there is still a relatively consistent monetary standard available to those in the population who can afford it. And again one has to assume that's mostly Robert Mugabe's cronies. It stands to reason that there will be no economic stabilization until the man is removed from office, which will probably require some form of violent conflict.

[kaski]

With all due respect, YOU ARE ONE SICK INDIVIDUAL!!!!

[KillTheMessenger]

Me? For suggesting that Robert Mugabe is not going to go peacefully? I think he kind of made that pretty clear himself, didn't he?

[sposton]

People of Zimbabwe are enslaved and can't do much about it. Come to think of it we can't do much about our enslavement, either. I was hoping Obama might bring about some badly needed changes, but it is obvious now that ain't gonna happen. I guess after eight years of Bush going back to Clinton years seems appealing to so many Americans. That's fine but is that really enough at this stage? I don't think so.

[KillTheMessenger]

Don't soil yourself. Being in Zimbabwe is by no means comparable to being in the US. If you can't tell the difference, at least refrain from the comparison which is an insult to every citizen of Zimbabwe.

[sposton]

Of course, being in Zimbabwe is not comparable to being in the US but that does not mean there are no common discernible patterns worthy of discussion. Our increasing inability to bring about badly needed changes for our nation is one of them. The other pattern is accelerated printing of money. You may not think these are relevant but I do.

When someone mentions Weimar Republic as a comment to our current problems it does not mean he is directly comparing the life of German in Weimar with a life of a American today. The intent is to identify a relevant pattern from the past (or present in this case) from which to learn. After all, only fools learn exclusively from their own mistakes. The rest of us soil ourselves trying to learn from history and other people's mistakes.

[OutsiderSA]

The difference is you have a pragmatist and not and Idealist. Just like the USA, the liberators of Africa need to die and pass the torch to the next generation - Mugabe is over 80.

[OutsiderSA]

The difference is you have a pragmatist and not and Idealist. Just like the USA, the liberators of Africa need to d.i e and pass the torch to the next generation - Mugabe is over 80

[kaski]

This is what happens when the IMF, and World Bank (privately owned by the Rockeffellers, Rothschilds, Morgans, Warburgs, Schiffs, Duponts...) loan money to Third World countries that can not even pay back the interest on the money loaned to them. Sound familiar? It's exactly where we are today, because of private bankers owning our central banking system. We owe them some 11 trillion dollars and counting. Just who do you think really runs and owns America? You guessed it, it's the same owners of the IMF and World Bank that own our central banking system called the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is no more Federal than Federal Express is.
"History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance." James Madison

[OutsiderSA]

This is what happens when the IMF, and World Bank (privately owned by the Rockeffellers, Rothschilds, Morgans, Warburgs, Schiffs, Duponts...) loan money to Third World countries that can not even pay back the interest on the money loaned to them

-------

I hear you but if you do some research, you will see that Zimbabwe has many untapped resources and is said to have even more gold than SA. (Biggest Lithium mine in the world)

When Mugabe took over, the country had a 3-5% growth rate and was essentially independent barring oil, arms and vehicles.

Mugabe took a line of retribution instead of reconciliation like SA did - the difference is there.

[kaski]

SOOO, who do youy think wants and will get that gold? The people of Z? Not likely!!

[mjb5406]

Zimbabwe has more gold than SA and it has the richest platinum deposits in all of Africa, but the mines are now all shut down because of conditions there.

While SA's end to Apartheid yielded conciliatory leaders like Nelson Mandela, unfortunately the Bush Wars in Zimbabwe gave us the despot Mugabe who has taken all of the fertile lands from the white farmers (who made the country the "breadbasket" of Africa) and turned it over to his political cronies, who haven't even planted the land. He claims the land was "redistributed" to the black majority, but it's a lie. They have chosen to defy the SADC Tribunal's order to cease land seizures, in spite of being a part of the SADC treaty. They can't even abide by agreements they sign.

[KillTheMessenger]

Wow... what do you know? "Nothing" is the right answer.

[MetalCanuck]

Right on Kaski

[Wiredwilly]

America will soon make Zimbabwe look good. People are buffoons. Read " The Creature From Jekyll Island.