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Zimbabwe offers new exchange rate: $1 for 35,000,000,000,000,000 old dollars
- voidz 11y agoThey say quadrillion; shouldn't this be quintillion?
- white-flame 11y agoNo, quadrillion in the common short scale: 35,000 = thousand 35,000,000 = million 35,000,000,000 = billion 35,000,000,000,000 = trillion 35,000,000,000,000,000 = quadrillion In the long scale, this would be a "thousand billion" (or apparently also a "billiard" according to wikipedia), so not a quintillion there either. It boils down to denoting thousands of thousands, not just the raw number of triplet zeros in the number.
- Sealy 11y agoZimbabwe. A prime use case for Bitcoin? "At the height of the country’s economic crisis, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with banknotes to buy basic goods. Prices were rising at least twice a day." Bitcoin is often cited as being volatile. Its never been anywhere near as volatile as that ^ (at least not in the last 2 years)
- robzyb 11y agoZimbabwe. A prime use case for Japanese yen? "At the height of the country’s economic crisis, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with banknotes to buy basic goods. Prices were rising at least twice a day." Japanese yen is often cited as being volatile. Its never been anywhere near as volatile as that ^ (at least not in the last 2 years)
- tormeh 11y agoThe Yen is volatile? Except for the last two years, there hasnt been any valuation change for a decade.
- donatj 11y agoWhen I went in 2008 it was 100 yen to a dollar almost exactly, made the conversation rate dead easy. 100 yen is now worth 80¢. That change was entirely US based?
- tormeh 11y agoFrom 1995 to 2012 Japanese inflation was essentially zero: http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/japan/historic-inflation/cpi-inflation-japan.aspx http://www.inflation.eu/inflation-rates/japan/historic-infla...
- SideburnsOfDoom 11y ago> Zimbabwe. A prime use case for Bitcoin? As is well known and is mentioned in the article, what they actually used was other countries' currencies. Namely the South African Rand and the US Dollar. South Africa is the economically largest neighbour, and is stable by comparison. The US Dollar is the "global reserve".
- Grue3 11y agoYeah, all the poor people without access to electricity would love Bitcoin.
- zo1 11y agoNot even just poor people, almost all people have trouble getting electricity there. Of course, excluding the politically connected and powerful. </used_to_live_there>
- mrb 11y agoMost people in Zimbabwe have electricity. Zimbabwe has 97% mobile penetration: http://afkinsider.com/20015/report-zimbabwe-has-97-mobile-penetration/ http://afkinsider.com/20015/report-zimbabwe-has-97-mobile-pe... Last time I checked their phones didn't run on magic, but on electricity :) And all you need to use Bitcoin is a cellphone (a $20 smartphone). (No I am not seriously suggesting Zimbabwe uses Bitcoin. I am just pointing out you seem to incorrectly think all people in African countries live in huts or something.)
- SideburnsOfDoom 11y ago> Most people in Zimbabwe have electricity. ... you seem to incorrectly think all people in African countries live in huts I know people who live in good houses in affluent parts of one of the largest cities in South Africa, and they don't have electricity 24/7 http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za/loadshedding/description http://loadshedding.eskom.co.za/loadshedding/description.
- dagw 11y agoMore like a prime use case for foreign currency. Most affluent people in Zimbabwe use South African Rand or US Dollars to conduct busies.
- taejo 11y agoMost everybody. The Zim dollar is not legal tender any more; it's not printed any more. This is just the bank trying to get rid of its reserves. Sometimes Botswana Pula and Zambian Kwatsha are also used (esp. near the borders) but ATMs dispense USD.
- gadders 11y agoAnyone got a spare 1Trillion note they could send me?
- Evgeniuz 11y agoYou can just buy some on eBay. I once made a wager (which I lost) with a friend for "a million dollars" as a joke, but then found that you can just buy trillions (at the time) of zimbabwean dollars easily, so I bought some and delivered :) Funnily, they sell it on eBay at a price higher than their exchange rate (and that's excluding shipping).
- nostrademons 11y agoDoesn't that allow an arbitrage situation, where you can buy Zimbabwe dollars through official channels and then sell them on E-bay for more than they cost you? Or maybe the "official" exchange rate is depressed through shortages and risk in completing the transaction.
- Evgeniuz 11y agoI think supply/demand may get in the way: not that many people need zimbabwean dollars, just some collectors and those who seek them for novelty value. Market will become saturated pretty quickly.
- yincrash 11y agoThere are also websites that try and pump up the currencies as get rich schemes.[1] [1]http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2gzafs/spouse_is_purchasing_iraqi_dinar_vietnamese_dong/ http://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/2gzafs/spou...
- knocte 11y ago>Funnily, they sell it on eBay at a price higher than their exchange rate Doing the opposite of that would mean a man delivering letters with money in them with nothing in return. Sounds too philanthropic, especially when we're talking about money here.
- jetskindo 11y agoGuinea is working is way up there slowly but steadily. We are at $1 = 7249.95 franc. And you basically spend it at the same value. It's time to reset a large part of Africa.
- seszett 11y agoDoesn't the franc have a fixed conversion rate with the euro ? Oh ok I see, that's the real Guinea you're talking about, not one of the other Guineas. Do you know the reason why Guinea doesn't just use CFA francs ?
- brianmcconnell 11y agoZimbabwe: proof that even when shit goes completely off the rails, people can be cowed into putting up with it. At least they didn't go on an international ethnic cleansing binge like the Nazis did.
- Varkiil 11y agohttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1099467/Mugabes-genocide-The-images-despair-reveal-horror-Zimbabwe.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1099467/Mugabes-geno... You are right, this cleansing is only within their borders...
- TheOtherHobbes 11y agoI know people there. Brilliant country with a lot of potential. Psychotic leadership - it's far worse and more violent than a lot of people realise. (As in - throwing dissenters down mine shafts violent.) The West is partly to blame. Mugabe and Zanu-PF aren't going anywhere while Zim remains a cheap under-the-counter source of diamonds and minerals.
- tragomaskhalos 11y agoThe book "The scramble for Africa", a history of colonialism in Africa written in 1991, has this upbeat assessment of Mugabe as representative of a new breed of progressive African leaders: "his creed was pragmatic African nationalism .. he told the new nation that the 'wrongs of the past must be forgiven and forgotten'. Mugabe was a statesman in the making." How depressing that this turned out to be so wide of the mark.
- tat45 11y agoHow easily we forget that people change, and sometimes not for the better. It's easy to start well; ending well -- that's the trick.
- lmm 11y agoA friend reminded me of http://www.petertatchell.net/direct_action/mugabe.htm http://www.petertatchell.net/direct_action/mugabe.htm . How much could've been avoided if we'd been willing to enforce our laws?
- Ramadin 11y agowhat is the reason for this fall?
- sschueller 11y agoI wonder how quickly the US dollar would inflate if it was no longer the "global reserve". We print and waste an enormous amount of money compared to other countries that don't have that luxury.
- rtpg 11y agoThis is false. Japan has been doing QE long before we have, and is fine (actually they weren't even able to get inflation for a very long time). Printing money doesn't necessarily mean inflation is going to happen. There are so many factors involved, and the fact of the matter is the market cares about other things more than supply.
- tn13 11y agoPrinting money in US context however is indeed going to cause pretty serious inflation. Also in a world where we worry too much about inequalities, those american who do not have fixed assets are likely to get hurt even more.
- ghshephard 11y agoPrinting money, and putting it into circulation, in values that exceed economic growth always results in inflation. Inflation is trivial to cause. Deflation takes a bit more work and discipline, and is subject to the requirement that economic growth exceed increase in money supply - but the method behind it is well understood. The challenge is to keep your inflation at a low, reasonable level - say 3-5%. I don't think anybody has figured out a repeatable method to do that.
- tormeh 11y agoIt is trivial to cause inflation, but central banks are either not allowed or ideologically opposed to effective means of putting money in circulation. Many central banks have printed enormous amounts of money and inflated the currency less than they would like to because they're buying second-hand bonds with the printed money. They've been really frustrated with the inefficiency of this, which I find amusing and slightly suspicious. Just printing money and giving it away doesn't necessarily cause short-term inflation. The way in which it is done is the key.
- turshija 11y agoYugoslavia also had huge hyperinflation in the 90s - http://www.rogershermansociety.org/yugoslavia.htm http://www.rogershermansociety.org/yugoslavia.htm Between October 1, 1993 and January 24, 1995 prices increased by 5 quadrillion percent. That’s a 5 with 15 zeroes after it.
- leugim 11y agoIt is not new thing, it happened in Germany, Turkey, Yugoslavia... but yes, in Zimbabwe is exaggerated. I bought some bills of hyperinflated currencies through Ebay: One hundred trillion dollars of Zimbabwe. 50 million marks of between wars Germany. Some millions of Turkish lira.
- laumars 11y agoThe ironic thing is a million Zimbabwean dollars is worth far more as a novelty note sold on ebay, than it is as currency in it's own country.
- praxeologist 11y agoI bought one early in the bitcoin era when 1BTC was ~$1, probably spent over $3,000 at least in today's BTC or something.
- pessimizer 11y ago"The hyperinflated, worthless Marks became widely collected abroad. The Los Angeles Times estimated in 1924 that more of the decommissioned notes were spread about the United States than existed in Germany." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_Republic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_the_Weimar_R...
- Turing_Machine 11y agoMy late mother had a two billion mark stamp from Weimar-era Germany, though I see from Wikipedia that's not even close to the record (they have a picture of a five billon mark example in their article). It had gotten so bad that they didn't even bother printing new stamps; they'd just overprint the new value on the old stamp in black ink.
- donretag 11y agoIt is strange using an ATM in Zimbabwe in that it dispenses US dollars. Unlike most US ATMs, it will dispense fifties and hundreds. Larger notes are mostly clean, but dollar bills are absolutely filthy. They are used until they fall apart. Notes are US, but coins are South African rands.
- Symbiote 11y agoEcuador also uses the US dollar as currency, cash machines dispense $20s and $50s. Tourists from the USA should bring $1 coins and leave $1 notes at home, people don't like the notes as they get dirty. Ecuador mints coins (1, 5, 10, 25, 50¢) which are the same shape as US ones, and interchangeable in Ecuador.
- mithras 11y agoCambodia as well.
- technofiend 11y agoThat would be nice, but with weight restrictions being what they are particularly on international flights, toting along an extra two pounds of $100 in coins is unlikely.
- darkhorn 11y agoThey need to use exponential notations! 10^20.
- emersonrsantos 11y agoBrazil did this in the 90's but with a twist: they created a transition currency, the URV (Real unit of value), and the people believed when they introduced (1:1 to URV) new currency (R$ or Real). http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-f...
- kokey 11y agoI think Greece should introduce a currency like that and pay pensions and government employees in it. It should have a floating exchange rate to the Euro. They should call it the 'faux'
- jacobolus 11y agoPlease don’t bring this kind of comment here. It’s pretty much impossible for a flippant joke about shredding a large group of people’s pensions to result in productive discussion.
- davidw 11y agoPretty much anything about politics degrades rapidly, which is why politics is 'off topic' in the guidelines.
- meric 11y agoIt's a serious idea, presented in a sarcastic way. Defaulting on all Euro debts, exiting Europe, bankrupting the banks, issuing a new currency is a viable solution. Yes it's a horrible hang over to live through but it means removing the horrendous debt burden for the next 50 years. See how Greece is having trouble with every IMF payment in the past few months? If the EU has its way Greece will continue paying chunks of cash like those for decades to come. Better to burn everything down and start over. They might even pick up some Russian and Chinese financial support along the way.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- lerouxb 11y agoI still really want to get a few bags full of Zimbabwean notes and use it to wallpaper a room one day. You'd think that would be easy living in a country right next to them..
- bayesianhorse 11y agoIt probably doesn't help that education systems in countries like Zimbabwe is barely able to teach basic numerical skills to a large part of their population. (I don't want to imply this is necessarily the case in Zimbabwe, or everywhere in Africa, but I've heard in some MOOC that people in developing countries tend to have numerical problems with prices)
- nevi-me 11y agoUnless the standard's changed in the years, we (South Africans) view Zimbabweans as having a very good education system, extending to math literacy. Perhaps that view might be biased as most of the Zimbabweans we would be exposed to (or any other country really) would be the 'cream of the crop' due to the best and able affording to get scholarships to study in other countries. BTW, I'm 25, so I'm talking about things that I've seen in varsity from 7 years back to this day where I interact with varsity students.
- tragomaskhalos 11y agoYou have to do the Dr Evil voice when reading those denominations aloud
- shogun21 11y agoAt what point is the paper/materials worth more than the money printed on it?
- dtech 11y agoThat's already the case for the US penny.
- copsarebastards 11y agoI'm pretty sure that happened a long time ago. But the latent value of the materials is hard to recover--you could recycle the paper, but that requires a lot of expensive equipment, and there are many accessible sources of pulp which are easier to collect. Such an endeavor would inevitably fail because it lacks the efficiencies of scale. As an interesting aside, US pennies minted before 1982 contain $0.018 worth of copper. It's not nearly the problem that Zimbabwe has, because pennies makes up so little of the US currency in circulation. But one might think an enterprising entrepreneur could profit from this. But again the problem falls to inefficiencies of scale: you simply can't harvest and sort enough pennies quickly enough to make the effort worthwhile (machinery even exists for this purpose).
- lmm 11y agoI remember someone observing that physical currency from 100 years ago was worth more than you'd've made by investing it in stocks, property, or any financial instrument you care to think of for those 100 years.
- JorgeGT 11y agoMaybe if you have a rare and beautifully printed treasury bond, it's worth more than the (now antique) cash it cost!
- chiph 11y agoI bought a couple of the $100tn notes as a gift a few years ago. The frame I put them in cost more. Curiously, the eBay price is higher now than it was then ($34 vs. $6.25). So they'll be back to being worth a trillion in about ... 185 million years at the current rate of increase.
- amelius 11y agoRomania changed their currency way back, but they kept the name of the currency equal, and they even kept using the old currency for some time. So, there I was, getting money from the ATM, thinking I had hit the jackpot :)
- jacquesm 11y agoIt's super confusing, even today. In France something similar happened, one day a poor man came up to me and asked me 'Tu n'as pas cent balles?' or something to that effect, I thought it a bit curious that he'd ask for 100 euros but in fact he was asking for 100 'old' francs, which would translate into roughly 25 eurocents.