A proven cure for inflation
Lop twelve zeros off your currency.
From
CNN comes this article about -- you guessed it -- Zimbabwe:
Zimbabwe removes 12 zeros from currency
Zimbabwe slashed 12 zeros from its currency as hyperinflation continued to erode its value, the country's central bank announced Monday.
"Even in the face of current economic and political challenges confronting the economy, the Zimbabwe dollar ought to and must remain the nation's currency, so as to safeguard our national identity and sovereignty. ... Our national currency is a fundamental economic pillar of our sovereignty," said Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.
"Accordingly, therefore, this monetary policy statement unveils yet another necessary program of revaluing our local currency, through the removal of 12 zeros with immediate effect."
The move means that 1 trillion in Zimbabwe dollars now will be equivalent to one Zimbabwe dollar.
And just how bad is it?
World-record inflation estimated to be in the billions of percent -- but officially at 231 million percent as of July last year -- has quickly eroded the currency's value again and again.
Another one of
Jimmy Carter's little victories.
And buried at the bottom of the article is this little tidbit:
Regarding the cash shortages, Gono blamed Germany for dropping a contract that helped the country print money.
"The country has suffered bouts of cash shortages, which have disadvantaged both the corporate and household sectors," he said.
"As a country, we have come to terms with this stubborn reality that we were put under economic sanctions by Germany, which unilaterally cut a 50-year-old contract to supply us with currency printing paper, machinery, spare parts and inks without notice in July last year."
This
post of mine from March 2008 referenced
this article in the London Times Online:
Documents obtained by The Sunday Times show the Munich company Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is receiving more than �500,000 (�382,000) a week for delivering bank notes at the astonishing rate of Z$170 trillion a week.
�The regime is surviving by printing money,� said Martin Rupiya, professor of war and security studies at the University of Zimbabwe. �At this stage there is no other way.�
According to a source at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, G&D delivers 432,000 sheets of banknotes every week to Fidelity printers in Harare, where they are stamped with the denomination. Each sheet contains 40 notes and the current production is entirely in Z$10m notes.
I wonder if G&D were being paid in Zim Dollars or if they were being paid at all or if the situation in Zimbabwe was a little close to the
situation in Germany not that long ago...
The usual Rope. Tree. Some assembly required.
Posted by DaveH at February 2, 2009 7:32 PM