A surprise political move by Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, who fired his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa, has played havoc on the US dollar/bond note parallel exchange rate, as well as on Bitcoin price in the country.
image courtesy of CoinTelegraph
Authored by Steve H. Hanke of the Johns Hopkins University. Follow him on Twitter @Steve_Hanke.
In 2008, Zimbabwe suffered the second most severe episode of hyperinflation in recorded history. The annual inflation rate peaked in November 2008, reaching 89.7 sextillion (10^23) percent (see table below).
Cryptocurrencies are broadly higher this morning with Bitcoin leading the way to new record highs at $6000 - nearing $100 Billion market cap, bigger than Goldman Sachs - as demand from Zimbabwe soars (and Spanish concerns see activity rise).
Most of the biggest cryptos are higher...
But Bitcoin is leading - now above $6000 for the first time ever...
And is now 'bigger' than Goldman Sachs...
As CryptoCoinsNews reports, Zimbabweans are attempt to escape yet another currency debacle...
While bond notes were put forward as a panacea to diminish the flight of wealth from Zimbabwe... (as Steve Hanke noted, it was not)...
93-year-old Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe made it clear in an address this week that people who murdered white farmers during a government-sanctioned purge in the 2000s will never be prosecuted.
In 2000, Zimbabwe implemented a controversial land reform program that saw squatters invade and seize hundreds of white-owned farms around the country. As Newsweek details, the violent seizures resulted in the murder of several white farmers, with many more displaced, and close associates of Mugabe given large chunks of land.