Zimbabwe government has just US$217 (£138) in its account!

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Tequila
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31 Jan 2013, 1:48 am

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Zimbabwean government bank balance 'down to $217'

Finance minister tells journalists some of them have healthier accounts than the state

Two hundred and seventeen US dollars – the equivalent of £138. That is all that remains in the public account of the Zimbabwean government, a bewildered finance minister has announced.

The paltry amount cast doubt over claims of a slow economic recovery and raised fresh questions about the fate of the country's diamond revenues – officials say almost $685m worth were sold last year.

"Last week when we paid civil servants there was $217 [left] in government coffers," Tendai Biti, the finance minster, told journalists in the capital, Harare, on Tuesday, noting that some of them have healthier bank balances than the state. "The government finances are in a paralysis state at the present moment. We are failing to meet our targets."

There's skint and then there is Zimbabwe.

Jacoby
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31 Jan 2013, 1:55 am

coming soon to America

xenon13
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31 Jan 2013, 1:58 am

USA can print its US dollars and it does so that's not going to happen. Zimbabwe has been frozen out of the world financial system for over a decade though mysteriously Mugabe insists on paying debt service. That's what one gets for opposing the Great Steriliser Paul Kagame...

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31 Jan 2013, 10:30 am

Zimbabwe can print Zimbabwe dollars. That's why it *did* happen...

visagrunt
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31 Jan 2013, 12:48 pm

There are two essential differences with the US, though:

First, the US has to issue debt in order to print money. Second, people are still willing to buy US dollars.

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31 Jan 2013, 1:22 pm

visagrunt wrote:

There are two essential differences with the US, though:

First, the US has to issue debt in order to print money. Second, people are still willing to buy US dollars.

For now.

John_Browning
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31 Jan 2013, 3:57 pm

I guess they need the Rhodesians back to fix things. :lol:

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31 Jan 2013, 4:23 pm

Wow, I am officially richer than Zimbabwe, since getting paid today. That makes me feel...um

xenon13
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31 Jan 2013, 5:52 pm

The Rhodies were still the economic elite there until 2000 and Zimbabwe spent thirteen years under IMF supervision with disastrous results. That's why Mugabe moved against the Rhodies, that was because he realised that as a liberation leader he had spent twenty years effectively as a neocolonial satrap and he was discredited by that. He was considered a model leader by the West for most of that time, the thing that really changed the official view was his decision to join the war in the Congo on the side of the government and against the Rwandan invaders. That really I think really convinced him that his usefulness to the West was considered to be over and that the only way he could survive was to again become a liberation leader.

The story of Zimbabwe effectively is that the first seven or so years were considered to be a great success when Mugabe had most of the power over the situation. Diminishing terms of trade though caused some financial problems in the mid-80s leading to a Structural Adjustment Policy by the IMF in I think 1987. That's when it went downhill. The 1990s were a disaster, a lost decade, and all under IMF control. It didn't help that the AIDS epidemic hit that country very hard. Zambia is another place severely damaged by IMF policies, the free market Chiluba regime was so awful that he personally took a bribe from a vulture fund in order to force the people to pay a debt to Romania that had already been forgiven (the vulture fund obtained the note and was promised full payment). Meanwhile, people tried to escape from the miseries of life by inhaling fermented sewage. It became a moral panic in the US when it was suggested that US kids would start this practice!

Tequila
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31 Jan 2013, 6:01 pm

puddingmouse wrote:

Wow, I am officially richer than Zimbabwe, since getting paid today. That makes me feel...um

I'm officially scared of you now.

puddingmouse
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31 Jan 2013, 6:02 pm

Tequila wrote:

puddingmouse wrote:

Wow, I am officially richer than Zimbabwe, since getting paid today. That makes me feel...um

I'm officially scared of you now.

why?

Tequila
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31 Jan 2013, 6:17 pm

puddingmouse wrote:

why?

Because Robert Mugabe runs Zimbabwe. He's a scary man with a Hitler moustache. You haven't got a Hitler moustache, have you?

(This sounds brilliant after six pints.)

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31 Jan 2013, 6:18 pm

Jacoby wrote:

visagrunt wrote:

There are two essential differences with the US, though:

First, the US has to issue debt in order to print money. Second, people are still willing to buy US dollars.

For now.

And since the EUR is in a shambles, and the GBP, JPY, CHF, and CAD don't circulate in large enough volumes to take up the slack, the USD is the only game in town.

That's not likely to change anytime soon.

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Tequila
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31 Jan 2013, 6:19 pm

visagrunt wrote:

You do know the eurocrats are going to try to force us into the EUR again eventually though, don't you? And you know where will be? Free. Hopefully, by that time, it will all be crashing around them.

puddingmouse
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31 Jan 2013, 6:26 pm

Tequila wrote:

puddingmouse wrote:

why?

Because Robert Mugabe runs Zimbabwe. He's a scary man with a Hitler moustache. You haven't got a Hitler moustache, have you?

(This sounds brilliant after six pints.)

I have, it's just so blonde you can't see it.

j/k.

Master_Pedant
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31 Jan 2013, 6:28 pm

Jacoby wrote:

visagrunt wrote:

There are two essential differences with the US, though:

First, the US has to issue debt in order to print money. Second, people are still willing to buy US dollars.

For now.

I'm sure this US Debtpocalypse that the Peter Schiffs of the world have promised us is just around the corner ... any minute now.

The Austerians and pop Austrians have a record embarrassing even to Harold Camping.

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