"The Zimbabwean acting finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has allowed Zimbabweans to conduct business in other currencies, as the local currency continues to inflate at an alarming rate…" — BBC
Today the Zimbabwean finance minister legitimised the black market in foreign currencies. Allowing anyone to conduct business using any currency they like: The Rand, the $US, the Botswanan Pula, etc, etc. It is said that even street hawkers in back alleys now refuse to accept Zim dollars, since the currency is a laughing stock.
Panama ‘dollarised’ in 1903, and some South American and Carribean nations have been following suit ever since. See ‘2001 Ecuador Dollarises‘ for that history.
In terms of monetary and fiscal policy, this is a national confession that, ‘We can’t run an economy.’
Surely it is time for someone to invade that country? Tanzania successfully invaded Uganda in 1978 to depose Idi Amin, and the Ugandans that they encountered on the way from the border to Kampala were cheering them on and offering them food and whatever they wanted. They were seen as liberators, not invaders.
Now that Thabo Mbeki has gone, it could be time for the South Africans to stop supporting this failed state and cut them loose? It should not be a Western power, but could not some neighbouring African country take on this act of mercy? No-one would blame them.
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