As my McClatchy colleague Shashank Bengali has written more than once, Zimbabwe has an unending list of problems, including insane runaway inflation that requires people to lug around large suitcases full of dollars to pay their bills.
Over the weekend, I made my first $500 million when a Canadian colleague returned from covering the "election" in Zimbabwe with a few extra bills to pass around.
He was kind enough to bestow me with a slightly-stained $500 million dollar note. (Canadians are nice like that...)
Before I decided to fire off a "screw you suckas" e-mail to my editors, I asked my friend just how much my millions were worth in U.S. dollars: About three cents.
Sigh.
I guess I'll have to hang onto my day job... as long as I actually have a day job...
An historic but sad souvenir. I use mine as bookmarks. I didn't see too many of the Z$500 million bills floating around last month. The largest bill in circulation now is Z$50 billion -- about $3 and losing value by the second -- so it won't be long before Zimbabwe is a nation of impoverished trillionaires.
Posted by: Shashank Bengali | July 09, 2008 at 01:08 PM
Just discovered your blog via a link on the Aspen Institute's website. How are things?
Posted by: John Corcoran | July 10, 2008 at 03:56 PM
Good thing you had your reporter instincts and checked out the value of that bill before firing off that email.
lol.
Posted by: Edie | July 13, 2008 at 06:28 AM
They are missing the real value of the bills.
Sell them on Ebay.
Who wants to be a billionaire?
At $10 per billion face value of the bills they are in business.
Posted by: batguano101 | July 18, 2008 at 04:07 PM