Zimbabwe inflation tops 2m per cent

[Matilda]

Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Zimbabwe's economy is continuing to unravel, with the country's central bank saying annual inflation is now estimated to be more than 2.2 million per cent.

However, that figure is seen as a rough measure and some economists put inflation above 7 million per cent.

The official inflation figures simply confirm what Zimbabweans already know. In those shops and businesses that have goods to sell, prices are increasing by the hour.

President Robert Mugabe blames the rocketing prices on what he calls "illegal" sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by western nations.


Read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/07/17/2306022.htm

---

This is beyond anything I can comprehend - it must surely be worse than the inflation rate in the Weimar
Republic, when people had to take home their weekly pay in suitcases, because it was worth so little.
In Zimbabwe, too many people don't even have a wage.

Mugabe blames sanctions - there's perhaps just a shred of truth in that statement, because sanctions only
hurt the people. You can bet Mugabe and his hoons don't go without, only the innocent. I do have doubts
about the effectiveness of sanctions for this reason - I know the idea really is that the people will get
so angry they'll turn on Mugabe and get rid of him, but that's easier said than done when he has the
army and the guns at his service. They tried to get rid of him in the March elections, and that went
nowhere.

It's such a tragedy for the people and the country - not so long ago, Zimbabwe was "the bread-basket of
Africa", and now it can't feed itself. I would think the damage to the land alone will take decades to
reverse, and with climate change creating new problems (especially in Africa), you wonder whether the
land will ever again be viable.

[roamer65]

1. How do you put that many zeros on a banknote?

Hell, you can't even print 'em fast enough to keep pace.

[Igel]

7. I'd suggest scientific notation.

Exponents.

And when those get too big, if Zimbabwe gets to that point before imploding (or being purchased by some incredibly stupid school kid wasting his milk money), put exponents on the exponents.

[Pavulon]

2. Not climate change...

direct result of removing farmers who were practicing modern industrial scale agriculture with people who had no idea what they were doing.

Back out race and all and the stupidity of that is mind blowing.

Hopefully Mugabe will drop dead and the problem will go away.

The land would be viable in the time it takes to undo what the new residents did to damage the infrastructure.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. the black commercial farmers were run off the land too

But it doesn't really matter - even before the rampage the largest problem facing land reform was a lack of people interested in farming, many vacated white farms were empty even before Mugabe unleashed the "war veterans" to take the remaining farms. This is after all a country where people obtained their food in supermarkets, a nationalist call to subsistence agriculture fell on deaf ears.

[roamer65]

3. Everyone's a millionaire in Zimbabwe!

So what's the problem?:sarcasm:

This guy has 500,000,000 dollars!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/14/zimbabwe-inflation-chaos_n_112577.html

Soon all Americans will be as wealthy as this guy.

[KillCapitalism]

4. That's crazy!

They say Zimbabwe is the only nation where billionaires go hungry.

[cobalt1999]

6. At some point, people will stop looking at the "Western Boogyman"

That Mugabe tries to keep everyone focused on and will start looking at him.

As for the Army, when their pay won't buy food, he won't have them in his pocket anymore either.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

13. here is a South African editorial cartoon

[TheWatcher]

8. Coming Soon to a Fornerly Free Country near you,

[WriteDown]

9. Damn the colonialists!!!

:sarcasm:

[Zynx]

10. Where are the Mugabe apologists? I am tempted to stalk them down and make them answer.

[Canuckistanian]

16. There are Mugabe apologists here? Are you serious?

Even the Repubs know better than to support this dictator.

[Zynx]

17. There sure are. I could name one of them, but I think that's against board policy.

[tblue37]

23. Yep. One calls Mugane a nationalist and his opponents

colonialists.

[tidy_bowl]

11. Yes but what happens when Mugabe......

....can't pay his goons to beat up the people. My guess is that they will then beat up on him.

:toast:

[daleo]

12. If Bush had more time...

The U.S. could have hyperinflation too - endless war and endless deficits will do that.

[Tiberius]

14. Mugabe's palace

Check out the pics.

http://www.chillnite.com/wtf-gallery-of-zimbabwes-robert-mugabe

While the poor people of Zimbabwe fight for a days meal, this is how the President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe lives.

* Arab artists spent a year decorating the ceilings
* 3 acres of accommodation
* Estimated 26 million USD to build
* 25 en-suite bathrooms
* Neighbours in Borrowdale, Harare, have been told to sell up and leave to protect Mugabe’s security
* China has donated the glazed blue tiles that cover the roof.
* Malaysia has donated the timber
* there are underground rooms reinforced with concrete
* It is 3 times the size of the State House.
* has 44 acres of landscaped grounds
* A Serbian construction company built it - Energoproject - to a Chinese design. Mugabe said in interview that the Serbian company donated their material and labour
* 50 crack riot response police guard it on a 24 hour watch

[Matilda]

15. Ah - the Chinese.

They have a lot to answer for - without their support, there would be huge cracks in his hold on the
country.

If they weren't supplying him with arms, I suppose another country would, but you just wonder what
passes for morality with people like that. They know full well what the arms are being used for,
but then that's the way they do business in their own country too.

There is such hypocrisy amongst world leaders on this issue (and in the Sudan as well), and we little
people are helpless to do anything.

[JNelson6563]

19. Wow. Just wow.

Astounding.

[cobalt1999]

20. Makes the White House look like a dump.

No wonder he doesn't ever plan to leave office, he'd have to move out of there.

[mainegreen]

18. You can't blame economic sanctions: there aren't any.

At least not against Zimbabwe. The sanctions are targeted against ZANU-PF leaders.

Mugabe's a lair.

[ohio2007]

21. Mugabe threatens to nationalize foriegn firms .

Viva Mugabe


Mugabe threatens to seize foreign firms over sanctions


HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe will transfer ownership of all foreign-owned firms that support Western sanctions against President Robert Mugabe's government to locals and investors from "friendly" countries, a state newspaper reported on Sunday.

The southern African state is struggling with an economic crisis many blame on Mugabe's policies, which has left it with an inflation rate of over 2.2 million percent and chronic shortages of food and other basic needs.

Mugabe's government blames the crisis on sabotage by enemies angry over his seizures of white-owned farms for blacks, and has followed up that policy with another controversial law seeking to transfer majority ownership of foreign-owned firms to locals.

The Sunday Mail said Zimbabwe had begun auditing the ownership of Western firms in the country as part of a black empowerment drive "and to counter the possible withdrawal of investment under sanctions imposed and proposed by Britain and the U.S."


snip
Most of the Western investments in Zimbabwe are in tourism, agriculture, manufacturing and food processing industries.

The newspaper quoted its source as saying: "In the context of growing hostility, the government is planning to invite companies from friendly countries to move in and take over companies that will close down."


snip

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080720/wl_nm/zimbabwe_crisis_nationalisation_dc

Sounds like an open door policy for China since he finger points the UK and the US for all that is wrong with his world.

[ohio2007]

22. Check out the local investor

A Zimbabwean man holds on May 16, 2008 a new five hundred million dollar note in Harare, May 2008.
Zimbabwe, grappling with a record 2.2 million percent inflation, has introduced
a new 100-billion-dollar bank note in a bid to tackle rampant cash shortages.


And I thought being a Brazillian was the life of ease