The Little Book of the Shrinking Dollar: What You Can Do to Protect Your Money Now

Zimbabwe Hyperinflation circa 2006–2010

Zimbabwe used to be one of Africa’s wealthiest and safest countries. But the meddlers and world-improvers helped put Mugabe in power. Since then, the place has gone to hell.

Having a civil war never helps anyone. In the case of Zimbabwe, food crisis joined with over 80 percent unemployment, flushing the economy into the toilet and destroying the lives of Zimbabweans.

In 2007, the government declared raising prices an offense worthy of arrest. But you simply can’t outlaw inflation.

Things got so bad that the government stopped filing official statistics. At last count in July 2008, the inflation rate hit 231,150,889 percent. Yep, that’s 231 million percent! By November 2008, Zimbabwe’s inflation rate (as calculated by the Cato Institute) topped 516 quintillion percent. Only one hyperinflation in history has been worse: Hungary, 1946. (In Hungary, prices doubled every 15 hours.)

Over a third of the population left Zimbabwe. The black market reigned.

In early 2009, the central bank was printing new Zimbabwean dollars with 12 zeros lopped off the end. But no one wanted to touch them. So the finance minister threw up his hands. He sanctioned the use of other currencies: the U.S. dollar, the euro, the South African rand, and the Botswana pula.

“Inflation is coming back in style,” our friend and mentor Bill Bonner wrote in The Daily Reckoning when Zimbabwe’s top central banker, Gideon Gono was printing all those Zimbabwean dollars. “While other ...