Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, bread jumps to $800 million a loaf

[Newsjock]

http://www.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=1785&cat=1

Business yesterday responded to the release of the new high denomination notes with massive price hikes, ignoring calls by the National Incomes and Pricing Commission to keep prices at acceptable levels.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe released $1 billion, $5 billion and $10 billion notes in line with the increase in withdrawal limits from $500 million per week to $10 billion per month for those in gainful employment.

The move by the central bank was meant to provide workers with enough money to buy goodies for the festive season.

A snap survey by The Herald revealed that most retailers had effected massive increases to match the new withdrawal limit.

Prices of bread and soft drinks in most shops jumped from between $250 million and $300 million to $800 million.

[TheFarseer]

1. $8000 million a loaf for bread!?!?

I didn't know they had Whole Foods in Zimbabwe! Sorry, I stole that joke from Lewis Black.

[fujiyama]

2. LOL

[Ikonoklast]

5. It's really, really good bread.

[lonestarnot]

8. Diamond (en)crusted?

[Joe the Liberal]

3. Wow........

Talk about inflation. :wow:

[pitohui]

4. will the last person leaving zimbabwe please turn out the lights

i honestly wonder who is left, i think every one who is healthy enough to walk already has fled to south africa, and who can blame them

the level of suffering surely is beyond our comprehension

[no_hypocrisy]

6. In Weimar Germany, a stick of butter would cost a wheelbarrel of worthless Deutschmarks in the

morning. In the afternoon of the same day, it would cost two wheelbarrels of DM's.

[Boojatta]

9. Did Zimbabwe lose a war, get forced to pay reparations, and

try to mint its way out of the debt?

[Systematic Chaos]

7. Read this and prepare to have your brain explode....

From Wikipedia:

2008

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued a ZWD 10,000,000 note in January 2008, roughly equivalent of 4 US dollars.<18> Zimbabwe's inflation soared to a record high of 26,470.8 percent as the economy contracted by 6 percent, the central bank said.<19>

In April 2008 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued a ZWD 50,000,000 note, which was then worth approximately 1.20 US dollars.<20> In May 2008 the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe issued bank notes or rather "bearer cheques" to the value of ZWD 100 million and ZWD 250 million.<21> Meanwhile inflation had surged to an estimated 165,000 percent <22> with some unconfirmed reports putting the figure as high at 400,000 percent. Ten days later, new notes with a value of ZWD 500 million (then equivalent to about USD 2) were issued.<23> The US ambassador to Harare projected that inflation would soar to 1.5 million percent by the end of 2008.

By the beginning of July 2008, official figures put the inflation rate at 355,000 percent<24> and with some independent estimates as high as 8,500,000 percent.<25> By July 4th, 2008 at 5PM, a bottle of beer cost $100 billion Zimbabwean dollars, but an hour later, the price had gone up to $150 billion; the Los Angeles Times further reported on July 15th, 2008 that the printing presses were running out of paper to print the money, and it was feared that because of human rights concerns, Germany would cut off the supply of paper and the software license for creating designs for ever higher denominations of currency. <26> On July 16, the official inflation rate was reported by Zimbabwe's central bank as 2.2 million percent.<27>

On 19 July 2008, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced plans to introduce a Z$100 billion bank note.<28>

On July 30, 2008, the Governor of the RBZ, Gideon Gono announced that the Zimbabwe dollar would be redenominated by removing 10 zeroes, with effect from August 1, 2008. ZWD10billion will become 1 dollar after the redenomination. <29>

On August 19, 2008, official figures announced for June estimated inflation of over 11,250,000 percent (i.e., prices doubling every 22 days). <30>

Official statistics reported in October put Zimbabwe's annual inflation in July 2008 at 231 million percent. The annual rate of price growth was 11.2 million in June. The Central Statistical Office stated that it therefore gained 219.8 million percentage points.<31><32><33>

The Cato Institute's Senior Fellow Steve Hanke released a document estimating Zimbabwe's annualized inflation rate to be 89.7 sextillion percent as of November 14, 2008; by his calculations, between October 24 and November 14, prices in Zimbabwe increased by the factor of 170-200 each week.<1>

On December 6, 2008, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe announced plans to circulate the ZWD 200,000,000 note, just days after introducing the ZWD 100,000,000 note. Even with the circulation of both notes amid the entrenched hyperinflation, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe left in place caps on daily cash withdrawals at 500,000 Zimbabwe dollars, which is the equivalent of about 25 U.S. cents.<34>




So, what they really mean is that those $800,000,000 soft drinks are really $8,000,000,000,000,000,000 soft drinks. Soon I'm sure they'll become $8 soft drinks again, but in reality they'll be $8,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 soft drinks.

:puke:

[Sultana]

10. .

It's made by lil' angels :D

Mugabe needs to be taken out, by any means necessary.

I dare any of the African leaders stand up and defend this imbecile.

Africa will never succeed with such crappy and corrupt leaders, enough is enough.

[rucky]

11. What's preventing something like this from happening here?

[mike_c]

12. the Federal Reserve....

Be very afraid.