As Americans worry about the rate of inflation exceeding 4 percent, we should consider Zimbabwe, where the inflation rate broke the shocking 100,000 percent mark and the country released a 10 million-dollar note (now valued below $4 on the black market). But Zimbabwe’s currency is hardly the only one inflated beyond reason.
500,000-dong note. U.S. value: $31.37
An early-1980s U.S. embargo hobbled exports, leading to price controls and the printing of excess currency.
100,000-rupiah note. U.S. value: $11.05
During the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the rupiah lost 80 percent of its value within months, sparking riots in Jakarta (and soon ending President Suharto’s 32-year rule).
Tags: Hov says something aint right!
July 8th, 2008
Nothing compares to the new Zimbabwe Zim with a three-month expiration date.
July 8th, 2008
wow, the Zimbabwe note looks like it was printed with Microsoft Word with Impact, Times New Roman, Arial Narrow and Arial Black fonts.
that’s really lame for not properly typesetting currency.
July 8th, 2008
I’m moving to Zimbabwe! Everybody’s a billionaire!
July 8th, 2008
My friend’s over there right now, he sent this to a bunch of us the other day. (his flickr link: http://flickr.com/photos/tylersharp/) He’s crazy.
“Hello to all, I am writing from Zimbabwe while I can, as yesterday they cut the main phone, cell and internet lines country wide, probably to suppress news coverage. I got here two days ago, right during these elections, and they gave me quite a difficult time at customs. They thought that I was a journalist with all of my cameras, and wouldn’t let me go through unless I had a letter inviting me to the country, which I obviously did not have. My options were to leave it at customs, in a “locked” safe, or pay a $1500 deposit fee to take it with me. Here is the catch though, when I came to pick up my deposit afterwards, they were to pay me in Zim dollars (which ends up being trillions of dollars). No joke, I have a 5 billion dollar bill in my hand right now, and gazillion is an actual form of currency here. Pretty crazy that I am a gazillionaire here, literally. Impressed ladies? I would be…Anyways, 5 billion dollars is about one dollar here, so I am a $1000 millionaire. Long story short, some of my friends talked the customs guys down to $200, and I got my video camera back. But they have come by the lodge a few times to check on the camera to make sure it is still here and I am not doing guerilla journalism. Little do they know that I have like 4 cameras!!! Hahahah! “