Inflation

Sean Paul Kelley August 30, 2009 - 10:24am

Sean Paul Kelley's diary | printer friendly version |

( categories: Africa: Sub-Saharan )

I think that's mine

According to an email I just received, they will deposit it in my account as soon as I send them my SS# and bank account. ;)

"Lord! What Fools these Mortals be!"

Doug Richardson August 30, 2009 - 10:47am

My daughter could make

better looking ZimDolls than that on her high school's ditto machine....

Sad what Mugabe's done to the country....

-5.75,-4.05
"God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time." -- Robin Williams

justadood August 30, 2009 - 11:41am

Tell her not to bother if she has a slow printer.

By the time it finishes printing it may not repay the expenditure of printer paper and toner.

"The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Escher Sketch August 30, 2009 - 1:55pm

Is that enough for a loaf of bread?

Or does it take a wheelbarrow load of of those?

Whatever the answer, it will change quickly - for the worse - as inflation continues on at at least a 10,000%+ annual clip.

Can you imagine having to lop of 12 zeroes from your currency?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/02/02/zimbabwe.dollars/

Mind boggling.

AMC August 30, 2009 - 1:52pm

No, at least it wasn't worth but

about a dollar when my friend gave it to me. And that was two weeks ago.

^{"All men's gains are the fruit of venturing."}

-Herodotus

Sean Paul Kelley August 30, 2009 - 4:42pm

There is no joke, nothing funny (ha ha) going on here...

There are no fools, no accident, no failure to understand economics happening.

Unless it is the commentators in this thread.

Think it through....

What would be the 'net and full effect of a despotic government printing huge amounts of currency (legal tender) and funnelling it through it's power base and supporters.

Legal tender or forced tender is an offered payment that, by law, cannot be refused in settlement of a debt, and have the debt remain in force. Some jurisdictions may forbid or restrict payment made other than by legal tender

What happens to the tangible assets in that country? Where do they move to?

Given very strict currency control laws enacted in the days of Rhodesia, what happens to the hard currency assets? Where do they move to and in whose hands do they reside?

And if the reigns of government ever do get handed over... look to see a new generation of conservatives, wonderfully keen on property rights, rule of law and the maintenance of the status quo.

And then when you have gotten over smirking at those funny Zimbabweans... look at the inflationary pressures in the USA and where they are coming from and what they are doing.

John Carter August 30, 2009 - 5:13pm

But back in reality, there is something grotesquely

funny about looking at a bill worth five hundred million dollars. It was a bit of a flashback to when the Turks had their inflation problem and I had a bill worth fifty million lira that wouldn't buy me a soda.

I understand what you are trying to say, John, but sometimes finding the humor in our absurd modern life is a lot better than crying about it.

^{"All men's gains are the fruit of venturing."}

-Herodotus

Sean Paul Kelley August 30, 2009 - 6:16pm

It's not absurd...

...absurd implies lack of rational thought, absurd implies unintended consequences of well-intended actions, absurd implies buffoonery.

Whilst we are prepared to smile and go nudge-nudge wink-wink and laugh at their foibles...

..we allow them to exercise the deception. Who isn't prepared to be called a buffoon for a million or two of some reasonably hard currency?

When we take a stand and declare hyper-inflation in a small economy (or mild inflation of a vast economy) to be larceny on a grand scale... we can start looking for where the tangible assets are moving to so we can assign criminal liability.

Whilst we merely laugh at the patent foolishness of 500 000 000 dollar note.... we forget to be angry about the poor man who sold his chicken for a dollar and now has absolutely nothing in return.

Once we stop shaking our heads, we can start to look for those financial intermediatories that facilitate the movement of the real wealth, thence publically declare those institutions to be profiting from misery.

John Carter August 30, 2009 - 6:52pm

It's a coffee-cup stain and

It's a coffee-cup stain and a watermark!

"Turning Japanese I think I'm Turning Japanese I really think so da-da-da det det det det" - The Vapors

Tonsure Wimple September 2, 2009 - 12:52am

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