Poor Trillionaires
February 1, 2013 4 Comments
On the left is a complete set of bank notes from Zimbabwe ranging in value from a single Zimbabwean Dollar to 100 Trillion Zimbabwean Dollars.
Zimbabwe’s economy went into free-fall at the turn of the millennium, after President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms. The move demolished investor confidence, paralyzed production, prompted sanctions and scared off tourists.Since then, in the intervening dozen years or so,the country suffered hyper-inflation of 231 million per cent.This series of bank notes is now abandoned and replaced by foreign currencies in Zimbabwe.However they are hot collectibles for bank note collectors the world over.
So,if you thought being a billionaire in any currency would make life easy think again.Here is an example of what a 100 billion Zimbabwean Dollars would buy you in Zimbabwe:
To help me remember just how relative figures quoted in different currencies are I would love to have a complete set of these bank notes to add to my collection.So if you have a set you would like to sell,please get in touch with me by leaving a comment.
About Keerthika Singaravel
After paying their civil servants Zimbabwe only had less than $300 in their bank account recently.
Yes they pay trillions to their civil servants and it doesn’t cover the cost of commuting to work.
The broke show the Zimbabwe government put up is probably its way to grab more foreign money in the name of its poor people.The elites in government have staggering assets abroad and the international sanctions were against these assets not the people or economy.
In the end it is the people that suffer in sanctions.
In this case I think people are suffering more because of civil war.
But having to go to the black market for even milk,eggs and baby products and braving government bans for the purpose sounds horrific.