Buh?

[lithera]

From the BBC: Zimbabwe's annual rate of inflation has increased to 2,200,000%.

I don't even think I can comprehend what, exactly, that means. I understand in a numbers sort of way, what that would to do things but in a day to day living sort of way...

Comments

[jameel.livejournal.com]

It means that their money is worth about as much as the paper it's printed on.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

It's probably saner these days in the age of debit cards and electronic transmissions (although I don't know if that exists in Zimbabwe), but I assume you know about the Wiemar Republic and how the Germans had to bring wheelbarrows full of money to the grocery store.

As someone who has more debt than savings, I don't have a problem with some inflation.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do. I just.... It baffles me some.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Well, that much is certain.

[thezzyzx.livejournal.com]

Well also there's a difference between paper inflation where the value of everything doubles but so does your salary so it's just the same thing with different numbers, and the scary inflation where prices go up but salaries don't so standards of living go down.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that the salaries are not keeping up. As a guess.

[jameel.livejournal.com]

I'm no economist, but I think "Welcome to the barter system!" is an appropriate descriptor of what everyday life becomes under that kind of inflation.

Post-WWI Germany went through the same thing.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*nods* Heh. That's what David pointed out too. I think it would have to get there. I do.

[seanb.livejournal.com]

The 12th root of 22,000 is 2.3, so you can think of it as the price of EVERYTHING doubling in slightly less than a month, every month. Actually, the "doubling time" works out to about 25 days.

In day-to-day terms - any job or previously-arranged contract is worthless. Bartering physical goods, services, and even more desperate measures become the only way to survive.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Thank you. That puts it in a little better context.

[eggies-red-dres.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The literal time frame is helpful. Horrific, but helpful.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Less than that, I fear.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Too safe a guess, right now.

And the current "regime" is likely panicking even more now that the first indictment of crimes against humanity has been handed down at the International Criminal Court.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Good times.... You know. In that way where they aren't at all.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

Specifically against the current head of state of Sudan. Which precedent has got to make Mugabe and his inner circle more nervous than they already were.