100-billion-dollar note

lanbrown · 07-20-2008, 12:44 AM

Who says we have a weak dollar. You too can get a 100-billion-dollar note from Zimbabwe. Starting on Monday this note will be available. To save you from doing the math; as of today it will cost you $3.79 USD to get a 100 billion dollar note. WTF does one Zimbabwe dollar buy you? I wonder if they have motorcycles accessories? Property is probably real cheap too.

Walk in with ~$0.50 like in Eurotrip and you are probably treated like royalty.

spiral · 07-20-2008, 8:14 AM

Zimbabwe is in serious trouble. Inflation there is out of all control. Sanctions are not helping, and the country is now rapidly running out of the paper used to print their money. In short its not looking good and no one seems to have the ability to sort out that mess.

Many articles on this situation.

BBC NEWS | Business | Zimbabwe inflation at 2,200,000%

lanbrown · 07-20-2008, 12:57 PM

There is also a shortage of basic items. So even if you have the money, you still cannot buy what you need.

Surffrog · 07-21-2008, 8:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by spiral

... In short its not looking good and no one seems to have the ability to sort out that mess.

There is an answer but unfortunately all the countries that would be involved are using it for sabre rattling and diverting attention from their own problems

Quote:

Originally Posted by lanbrown

There is also a shortage of basic items. So even if you have the money, you still cannot buy what you need.

True, but if you have money you can get out of the country, no?

Twincam · 07-21-2008, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surffrog

True, but if you have money you can get out of the country, no?

If you had the money to get out, where would you go? 1 Billion = $3.79 = about £1.90... They probably get paid peanuts and probably will never even see a billion dollar note...

Surffrog · 07-22-2008, 4:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Twincam

If you had the money to get out, where would you go? 1 Billion = $3.79 = about £1.90... They probably get paid peanuts and probably will never even see a billion dollar note...

Given that there's only a handful of individuals in Zimb with money (they all have off-shore accounts) and that they're all top mates with one particular person who's holding an obscene amount of foreign currency; I don't think they'll have any difficulty there.

steingar · 07-22-2008, 12:58 PM

Zimbabwe is a true tragedy. It used to be the breadbasket of Africa. I have never seen mismanagement at such a scale nor anything so tragic.

Surffrog · 07-23-2008, 4:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steingar

Zimbabwe is a true tragedy. It used to be the breadbasket of Africa. I have never seen mismanagement at such a scale nor anything so tragic.

The other states of Africa follow close behind with their poor historical record, too. There aren't too many success stories in that part of the world.