Starving Billionare
What does a $100 billion get you these days?
Location is everything.
In Zimbabwe it buys you one ITUNE download. But you best hurry as their inflation rate will change the cost of that download by the time you finish reading this short post.
You see, Zimbabwe has a 2.2 million
percent inflation rate. What that mean is that if that happened to the United States a dollar today would be worth 2.2 Million dollars next year. Unfortunately that also means that a loaf of bread today also costs 2.2 million dollars next year. How about gasoline at $10 Million dollars a gallon... and you thought $4 dollars was bad. That is what hyperinflation is all about.
To further compound the problem, there is an 80% unemployment rate, mass poverty and outbreak of AIDS and HIV, this along with the rampant corruption in the government has made Zimbabwe hell on Earth.
It was not always this bad but Zimbabwe has seen an economic meltdown since it gained freedom in 1980 from the United Kingdom, when Robert Mugabe took office.
In Zimbabwe, the inflation was initially caused by the fact that the Zimbabwean dollar is not tied to a hard currency. Zimbabwe has a lack of fuel and consumer goods, which Mugabe could not control. This caused unrest in the country and it was further compounded when Mugabe started to reallocate land from of his critics to his backers. The EU along with the United States started to isolate Zimbabwe through the use of financial means. Since Zimbabwe imports all of its energy and oil is bought and sold in US dollars this made monetary sanction toward Zimbabwe highly effective.
There is no apparent end to this as Mugabe has sworn not to step down as President even though his country is in shambles. Why would he? He is one of the African continents richest men and he wants to ride this wave of power even though he is approaching 84 years old.
My message to all of you Zimbabweans…. Leave the country if you can.
Location is everything.
In Zimbabwe it buys you one ITUNE download. But you best hurry as their inflation rate will change the cost of that download by the time you finish reading this short post.
You see, Zimbabwe has a 2.2 million
percent inflation rate. What that mean is that if that happened to the United States a dollar today would be worth 2.2 Million dollars next year. Unfortunately that also means that a loaf of bread today also costs 2.2 million dollars next year. How about gasoline at $10 Million dollars a gallon... and you thought $4 dollars was bad. That is what hyperinflation is all about.To further compound the problem, there is an 80% unemployment rate, mass poverty and outbreak of AIDS and HIV, this along with the rampant corruption in the government has made Zimbabwe hell on Earth.
It was not always this bad but Zimbabwe has seen an economic meltdown since it gained freedom in 1980 from the United Kingdom, when Robert Mugabe took office.
In Zimbabwe, the inflation was initially caused by the fact that the Zimbabwean dollar is not tied to a hard currency. Zimbabwe has a lack of fuel and consumer goods, which Mugabe could not control. This caused unrest in the country and it was further compounded when Mugabe started to reallocate land from of his critics to his backers. The EU along with the United States started to isolate Zimbabwe through the use of financial means. Since Zimbabwe imports all of its energy and oil is bought and sold in US dollars this made monetary sanction toward Zimbabwe highly effective.
There is no apparent end to this as Mugabe has sworn not to step down as President even though his country is in shambles. Why would he? He is one of the African continents richest men and he wants to ride this wave of power even though he is approaching 84 years old.
My message to all of you Zimbabweans…. Leave the country if you can.
Labels: Politics
posted by Fe Man at 5:29 PM
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