Worthless Money

This is crazy.

Zimbabwe’s chief statistician has said it is impossible to work out the country’s latest inflation rate because of the lack of goods in shops.

“There are too many data gaps,” the Central Statistical Office’s Moffat Nyoni told state media.

Many staple goods are often absent from shop shelves after the government ordered prices to be halved or frozen in a bid to stem galloping inflation.

September’s inflation rate was put at almost 8,000%, the world’s highest.

Other reports suggest the rate could be at near 15,000% and the International Monetary Fund had warned it could reach 100,000% by the end of the year.

Gee… totalitarian economic controls work!

1. Yeah, but note everything they’re talking about here are products - physical goods, foodstuffs, things you can stockpile (or as some might say: “hoard”) at home or in the back room of your store, things you can hold in your hand (assuming your hand has grabbed one before the shelves go empty like they’ve done here).

   Cause we’d certainly have cause to worry if the same economic principles applied to non-physical “services” like, oh, say, government-provided and regulated housing, job training and education, or health care.

   Dang it all!!! Wanted to slap one in the post, but I’ve just been informed there’s a waiting list for </sarc> tags till after the elections…

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 04, 2007 at 0219 hrs




2. Moffat Nyoni??  Hey, that guy owes me $30 million dollars!

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 04, 2007 at 1020 hrs




3. I like that you continue to post updates on this Zimbabwe situation.  What is unfortunate is that more people don’t pay attention to them.

   The same kind of economic meddling by Zimbabwe’s government are what you hear demanded of “enlightened” academics in the U.S. and your run-of-the-mill lefty voter on sites like Kos and HuffPo when it comes to our own country.

   If people paid more attention to situations like Zimbabwe, they would probably not be so eager to enact socialist economic policy like this.  But then again, maybe they wouldn’t.  Zimbabwe seems content to run their economy into utter chaos just to prove a point.  I fear the left in America would operate with the same level of stubbornness.

   Posted by David on December 05, 2007 at 1214 hrs




4. So David, what do you think of the Administration’s proposed bailout for the mortgage industry?

   Or the Fed Banks catering prime to Wall Street whining?

   Who are the leftys in this scenario?

   How do you think this will be reflected in the value of the dollar and inflation?

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 05, 2007 at 1234 hrs




5. I’m against any mortgage bailout.  I’ve been looking to buy a house lately, and I want prices to keep going down   But in the macro sense as well, I don’t think the government should be meddling in this.

   Same with the Fed’s and the banks.  The banks who are begging for protection from the Federal Reserve and for legislation to protect their profits are just as ridiculous as the people who think they should be able to keep houses that they’re not paying for.  All these groups went into their situations knowing the risks.  Whining about it now, when the risks are not paying off so well, should not be the basis for messing with a market.

   In terms of how the banks, homeowners, and politicians are approaching this housing “crisis”, they’re all acting quite lefty at the moment (looking for government interference and a solution).

   How it affects the dollar is hard to tell since the dollar is traded on a global market, and is so huge compared to that of Zimbabwe.  The portion of the U.S. housing market that is in “crisis” does not make up enough of the U.S. GDP to throw things way off kilter (we’d need to socialize medicine in order to do something like that).  Any bailout legislation will probably just add to the Forex traders’ already shallow view of U.S. money.  Personally I think the dollar will continue to drop.  But I also think it may approach a “reverse bubble” scenario where people are just driving down the value in order to ride the momentum and gambling that they’ll get out in time before it reverses.

   Posted by David on December 05, 2007 at 1250 hrs




6. David, I completely agree.

   I do wonder what you think will reverse the drop in the dollar,short & long term.?

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on December 05, 2007 at 1408 hrs