The econ geek in me gets real excited by sentences like this:
231 million percent. That's 231,000,000%. Zimbabwe is responding by printing $50 billion notes. Nice.Zimbabwe is grappling with hyperinflation now officially estimated at 231 million percent and its currency is fast losing its value. As of Friday, one U.S. dollar was trading at around ZW$25 billion.
In my basement (pending hanging up in the Man Cave) I've got two five-hundrend billion dinar notes from the former Yugoslavia that I've framed and labeled as "My First Trillion." They were printed in 1993.
In much the same way that taking a trip to a third world nation puts your own problems in harsh contrast, reading about some of the economic problems of the rest of the world makes your bank account feel a lot more stable.
1 comments:
Ah, memories of Brazil in the late 1980s. Currency name changes, cutting zeros across the board, dollarizing...good stuff.
There's a great description of street haggling and currency exchange during hyperinflationary periods in Mobutu's DRC in "In the footsteps of Mr. Kurtz." If I can remember to do it, I'll send you the excerpt...
Post a Comment