Mugabe solves Zimbabwe’s economic disaster with brilliant master stroke
posted at 9:11 am on July 5, 2007 by Allahpundit
We don’t cover this often but now and then a piece of this slow-motion train wreck will fly off so spectacularly that it simply must be remarked upon. The last time was in February, when Mugabe thought it’d be a good idea in the midst of an economic collapse caused by his own confiscatory Marxist policies to pay for his birthday party with the wages of civil servants. Today comes his latest bright idea, a solution to hyperinflation that’s reached 10,000% and is still rising:
Price controls, naturally. What could go wrong?
Panic buying swept through the streets of Zimbabwe yesterday, as stores ran out of basic goods and shopkeepers complained that they were selling goods at a loss after the government ordered prices to be halved in a last-ditch effort to tackle hyper-inflation…
By making it uneconomic to produce and sell goods and food, Mr Mugabe risks further damaging the country’s limping economy, which has shrunk by 50% over the past seven years. Economists warn the move will not control inflation but will simply push goods on to the thriving black market. Analysts say many companies and industries could go bankrupt, adding to Zimbabwe’s unemployment, which is already estimated at 80%…
“Those found on the wrong side of the law will be punished severely,” [Vice President Joseph] Msika told state radio. “We will take their businesses, we will take their licences. They have raised prices to a level the people cannot afford so they must die in agony with hunger.”
The U.S. ambassador predicts inflation by the end of the year of … 1,500,000%. Exit question: How bad do you have to be to have Catholic bishops inviting western countries to wage war on and kill you?
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Race politics has taken Zimbabwe this far. I wonder where it will eventually lead?
jaime on July 5, 2007 at 9:17 AM
Is he related to John Conyers ?
DoctorDentons on July 5, 2007 at 9:20 AM
The hubby and I recently returned from a month long trip to South Africa. The crime there is off the charts, I’ve never seen anything like it, the locals in Jo’burg blame most of it on illegal immigrants from “Mugabe Land”. They’ll kill you for the change in your pocket. Man’s inhumanity to man never ceases to amaze me.
silenced majority on July 5, 2007 at 9:23 AM
To borrow a line from The Breakfast Club — Mugabe and Chavez should go bowling, together.
SWLiP on July 5, 2007 at 9:24 AM
He is the Mad Hatter or should I say Mud Hutter.
TheSitRep on July 5, 2007 at 9:33 AM
Master Blaster – Stevie Wonder 1980
If only Stevie could have known that the peace brought in 1980 (Mugabe) would bring the utter destruction of the entire country in 2007.
reppac122 on July 5, 2007 at 9:40 AM
After Mugabe dies, I offer my services as a consultant to the next president for life to set Zimbabwe back on the course to prosperity. I am a white, middle-aged American with a basic understanding of supply and demand economics and of human nature. Where do I apply for the job?
archon2001 on July 5, 2007 at 9:41 AM
Inflation 10,000%? Unemployment 80%? Wow! A regular Marxist Utopia. I guess this what Hillary! envisions for we, the peons.
oldleprechaun on July 5, 2007 at 9:43 AM
OH NO! Could my comment be construed as RACIST?!?!?
oldleprechaun on July 5, 2007 at 9:44 AM
When I first read the lede, I thought it implied he had a stroke, which would definitely help Zimbabwe.
Blake on July 5, 2007 at 9:46 AM
Good God, Mugabe is a nutter. I don’t blame those Zimbabwean bishops for begging Western countries to invade Mugabe Land.
mram on July 5, 2007 at 9:53 AM
Price controls will do for Mugabe’s economy what they did for gas in the late 70′s.
This is getting more amusing by the minute.
drjohn on July 5, 2007 at 9:53 AM
The rules of race politics:
1. Wherever bad things happen to non-whites, it’s alway the fault of white people.
2. If you can’t find any white people to blame the bad things on, see rule one.
Bigfoot on July 5, 2007 at 9:54 AM
What a disaster. Is anyone doing anything at all about this?
CP on July 5, 2007 at 9:54 AM
Africa hasn’t seen head-of-state lunacy on this scale since Idi “VD” Amin of Uganda.
flipflop on July 5, 2007 at 9:55 AM
Seems like a case where murder would be a kindness, sparing many others.
Might not even be murder, since he’s inhuman.
NellE on July 5, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Exit question:
Bishop Mcube:
And this from VP Msika:
When the fear of staying the same exceeds the fear of change, hopefully the Zimbabweans will take matters into their own hands and extract the price Mugabe should pay for his control along with the rest of his cronies. That is exactly the type of price control needed there.
kjspeedial on July 5, 2007 at 10:04 AM
In some countries, people pay for a ten- to fifteen-year “retirement” with others’ wages. The workers hold down the size of their family in order to be better able to pay their taxes, and then their government lets in millions of immigrant workers to make up for the retirees and the shortage of young workers. The countries can’t assimilate so many immigrants, and the citizens complain rightly of slapdash governance, but nothing changes. Mugabe is nutty, true, but he’s just one of millions.
Kralizec on July 5, 2007 at 10:44 AM
Now the rats are turning on each other.
Nice socialist paradise, you’ve got there bud.
In 27 years, these clowns have taken “The Jewel of Africa” and turned it into Somalia, the sequel.
G-man on July 5, 2007 at 10:49 AM
No Western nation will do anything about this. The moment they do, they will be accused of imperialism, waging war for (insert natural resource), etc…and they will be accused by many of the people who now demand “action.”
It’s just like with the Sudan. Every Western leader knows what will happen politically if they put troops on the ground their. The advocates who care so much will repaint all their signs to protest against the “warmongers.”
Nosferightu on July 5, 2007 at 11:30 AM
Imagine Ray Nagin as president of an African country. The results are the same. Another socialist paradise.
We should have a new colonialism. Give the country the chance to become a U.S. territory like Puerto Rico.
Mojave Mark on July 5, 2007 at 12:00 PM
I blame British colonialism! Africans were doing just fine until the blue-eyed devil came along!
SouthernGent on July 5, 2007 at 12:08 PM
Mugabe’s brilliant master stroke…
Kill everyone and start over. Yeah, that outta do it.
Lawrence on July 5, 2007 at 12:28 PM
slow-motion? train wreck.
You might want to rethink that application, its a hatchet job and your not the one holding the hatchet.
Speakup on July 5, 2007 at 12:31 PM
Yes. President Clinton signed the African Growth and Opportunity Act into law in May of 2000, and President Bush expanded it in 2002, 2004 and 2006. If Zimbabwe can get rid of Mugabe, they have a real chance of doing well. This documentary shows just how well other countries in Africa are doing. As to invading and deposing Mugabe… I’m sympathetic, but right now we have bigger fish to fry.
Laura on July 5, 2007 at 12:33 PM
Let’s just make Zimbabwe a colony of Venezuela…
Jonas Parker on July 5, 2007 at 12:46 PM
As did Blake, above, I saw that headline and thought, yay! Mugabe’s dead!
see-dubya on July 5, 2007 at 1:05 PM
Let’s see, 1,500,000% inflation and 80% unemployment? What better country to be the chair of the United Nations’s Commission on Sustainable Development?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6645715.stm
Dudley Smith on July 5, 2007 at 1:34 PM
On the bright side – and it’s no bright side at all for the people of Zimbabwe, of course – this is fodder for a heck of a You Tube campaign against Hillary Clinton. Compare what she says “take things away from you for the public good,” etc. and compare it to the fruits of Mugabe’s labor.
It’s also worth noting that the folks who want us to save Darfur have no interest whatsoever in Zimbabwe, which just so happens to be implementing the policies they propose for us.
Laura on July 5, 2007 at 1:43 PM
I thought the same thing when I read it. That’s exactly the kind of thing she’d do if she got her hands on the power she wants. Which is all the power, naturally.
ReubenJCogburn on July 5, 2007 at 2:13 PM
Well well, guess its time to gather up a bunch of guilt stricken American Celebs to start raising money for Zimbabwe
OSUBuciz1 on July 5, 2007 at 2:16 PM
With your self-description, you have removed yourself from consideration.
It is a terrible shame what is happening to Zimbabwe. I have been following it off and on through the London Daily Telegraph (online), and it is getting worse all the time. Mugabe and his cronies first started by killing and removing white farmers from their productive farms, then their farmhands were removed (leaving the farms in the hands of his non-farmer cronies). They then started disarming the civilian population (politicians fear armed peasants).
We need to start doing drops of a modernized version of the Liberator (used in WW2). It would be something that would scare the $h!t out of Mugabe and maybe help the people find a way to take back their country.
Abu Daboo Doo on July 5, 2007 at 2:42 PM
Didn’t the UN just promote Mugabe to the Ecoomic Development Council?
I mean, it makes sense. They have dictators in charge of human rights, why not have the people who have singlehandedly destroyed their country’s economy on economic development.
I look forward to the day the UN creates a council for general stupidity. It might get a few bright minds in there.
BKennedy on July 5, 2007 at 4:11 PM
This is what Venezuela will look like under Chavez if he stays in power for 20 years.
sadatoni on July 5, 2007 at 4:20 PM
Maybe Angelina and Madona can adopt the country? Their combined income is probably 10 times the GNP of Zimbabwe’s.
saiga on July 5, 2007 at 4:22 PM
“You say that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of money?” — Ayn Rand
Lazarus on July 5, 2007 at 4:40 PM
Race politics ? It has nothing to do with “race politics.” For the most part they are all the same race. But the taking of private lands and farms ( from mostly white farmers , that is true ) and giving it to his cronies has destroyed what was the breadbasket of Africa. But racism is not at the heart of it, it’s sheer greed and the implementation of Marxist and anti-human policies. Chavas is doing the same thing and will soon reap the same result.
Maxx on July 5, 2007 at 5:35 PM
Precisely. It’s also why we can’t permit a Dem to win the Presidency in 2008. No telling when we’ll get part or all of Congress back, but if the Dems get a clean sweep, they certainly won’t squander it like we did. It’s time to start putting together some videos that show what would happen if they got their way and actually implemented the programs they’re campaigning on.
For example, when they talk about the noble goal of “universal healthcare” – fine. Let’s show people the lines in the UK and Britain, and the stats that cancer patients in France die at a much higher rate than American cancer patients. Lets talk about the tax rates in those countries.
They’re giving us more ammunition every day; all we have to do is load our weapons with it.
Laura on July 5, 2007 at 6:25 PM
You are only half right. There are different tribes and that plays a bigger role thane race as such. Race only becomes part of the equation when whites are involved. When whites asked for something to be done in Zimbabwe only then are they loyal to ther colour not whites. That is why South African president Mbeki refuses to take any action against Mugabe. He won’t even critisize Mgabe.
SIJ6141 on July 5, 2007 at 6:33 PM
How bad does it have to get before a priest is begging for armed intervention? Cry, the beloved country, indeed.
I read somewhere that the only difference between Mugabe and Mbeki is twenty years. It would be unbearably tragic if Mbeki were allowed to rape SA the way Mugabe has Zimbabwe.
Lurking Vet on July 5, 2007 at 7:39 PM
I guess he figures if they are all starving to death the can’t mount a civil war.
boomer on July 5, 2007 at 8:03 PM
It is not money that is the root of all evil, rather, as the Bible says, it is the LOVE of money that is the root of all evil! Mugabe’s reign allows us to see the ultimate end of all socialism and communism. His few years in power reveal how quickly a decent country can plummet into chaos, murder and despair through a socialistic/Marxist race-baiting dictator. In other words, a good liberal.
JellyToast on July 5, 2007 at 8:03 PM
Delude yourself if you like.
jaime on July 6, 2007 at 12:09 AM
If you want to keep up with the Circus of Death & Destruction that ‘Zimbabwe’ has become, the Daily Telegraph has a stringer there, Helen Thorneycroft, who publishes a blog on line ( most of the DT is available free on line) from Harare.
Maybe she hits the Dewars a little too often, but so would you or I were you or I, witnessing so much widepread misery
Janos Hunyadi on July 6, 2007 at 1:22 AM