Comments on: Zimbabwean Crisis: Z$100 Billion Note Won't Even Buy You Lunch

By: nyasha

nyasha — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 06:25:11 +0000

the crisis in zimbabwe is terrible i think they should change the learder so that everything goes back to normal

By: Evil Pundit

Evil Pundit — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:17:41 +0000

Zimbabwe gets some food aid from the west (though Mugabe's thugs try to stop it reaching people who didn't vote for him). I suspect those who don't get aid rely on barter and other means to get food.

And some starve.

By: konshuss

konshuss — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 16:45:07 +0000

excuse me, can i get that in ones?

By: gl3nk

gl3nk — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:31:11 +0000

@Sid Morrison

Your 100% correct. Great comment!

By: MoonCake

MoonCake — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:47:53 +0000

i'm just wondering how they've managed to survive at all.. i mean, if they can't buy a loaf of bread after working a full day, how are these people still alive? how is zimbabwe not the land of rotting carcasses and disease? or is that the untold story? are we to assume that these people are just sitting around completely overwhelmed by their unpayable bills just waiting for the economy to sweep them off the land and start a-new? what is happening and what is being done?

By: Larfin Jackarse

Larfin Jackarse — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 08:19:19 +0000

Well as the saying goes, there mustn't be any oil there.

By: Bunk Strutts

Bunk Strutts — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 04:23:54 +0000

This news is positive. It means that there are more quadrillionaires in Zimbabwe than any other country in the world. Despotic Dictatorship works!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:59:42 +0000

What would a zillion buy you in Zimbabwe? How much do hookers charge by the hour? It's sad, really, that inflation continues to make short work of poor countries' already ailing economies. There should be some form of regulatory body when it comes to inflation. This problem of Zimbabwe is bound to affect the west ultimately; all economies are bound together.

By: DOJ

DOJ — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 02:13:06 +0000

Bob Mugs - Sid's bright idea #1 may be the cause, but it wasn't mentioned in the BBC article (which is my point)

By: Angstrom

Angstrom — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:34:06 +0000

on the subject of "resetting"

Zimbabweans are only allowed to withdraw $100bn a day from the bank, that's less than half the cost of a loaf of bread. So regardless of zeros being removed, people cannot buy bread.

it doesn't really matter what the number is, whether your pay cheque says $1,000,000,000,000 or $100, but if a loaf of bread costs a weeks wages then the trouble remains.

By: JoshuaPettigrew

JoshuaPettigrew — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:51:59 +0000

@SweetBabyZombie

Some gov'ts have done this in a "revaluation". They print new bills and say a million of the old currency equals some number of the new.

However, if you don't confront the root causes of the inflation (see Sid and Tom's posts), then all this does is to keep people from having to mess with taking a cart full of cash to the grocery store.

By: SweetBabyZombie

SweetBabyZombie — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:32:12 +0000

Can somebody explain why the government can't easily knock off all the zeros and thus resetting the currency?

By: RM

RM — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:23:05 +0000

Agree with DOJ. I will search more info.

By: mu

mu — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:20:13 +0000

AFAIK, Mugabe handed the confiscated farms over to his cronies rather than just any old "inexperienced black farmers". This is just run of the mill petty corruption, nothing to do with race or colonial rule really.

By: Bob Mugs

Bob Mugs — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:15:07 +0000

DOJ - see Bright Idea #1 in SId's post

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:22:28 +0000

The hyperinflation and the food shortages aren't really related, at least no directly. The hyperinflation is a result of runaway spending by the government, along with declining tax revenues. much like here in the US, they continued to spend more than they took in, and they made up the difference by printing more money. Lots of it. The government can buy anything it wants, simply by devaluing their dollar (amounting to a phantom tax). The people caught on to the increased number of dollars in circulation, and prices started going up up up, and everyone lost their purchasing power, except the government.

Eventually, no-one will even take zimbabwe dollars, and the regime will crumble.

By: DOJ

DOJ — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:20:15 +0000

Would've been nice if the article went into the causes and solutions of their inflation

By: Sid Morrison

Sid Morrison — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 20:01:27 +0000

Robert Mugabe Bright Idea #1:
Confiscate the landholdings of experienced (and productive) white farmers and redistribute it to a larger number of inexperienced black farmers.

Farm productivity plummets, food becomes scarce, hyper-inflation ensues. People starve.

Robert Mugabe Bright Idea #2:
Run for re-election. When your opponent forces a runoff, have thugs beat the hell out of anyone who voted for said opponent in the first election so they don't make the same "mistake" again.

Yeah, people of Zimbabwe were really being oppressed by British colonial rule. geez.