E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Zimbabwe woe as banks stay shut
No, Zim-bob-we has not yet hit bottom.
Banks in Zimbabwe failed to open on Christmas Day, despite earlier pledges from the central bank governor. Instead, long lines of Zimbabweans desperate for local currency queued at the few machines dispensing cash.

On top of rampant inflation, mass unemployment and shortages of fuel and basic goods the country is now suffering shortages of bank notes. The shortage remains despite the introduction of higher-denomination notes last week.

On Monday the central bank's governor, Gideon Gono, said banks would remain open on Christmas Day and Boxing Day to dispense cash after the new notes failed to cut long bank queues. But reports from the capital Harare on Tuesday said the banks were closed, leaving customers empty-handed and forcing many to join the lines at cash machines instead.

State media reported on Monday that the central bank had put another Z$20 trillion (worth about US$667m at the official exchange rate, or US$10m at the black-market rate) into circulation by introducing the new notes, Reuters reported.
Yup, just print more money, that'll solve all the problems.
But only a fraction of the existing cash in circulation is in the formal economy - the majority is in the black economy. Mr Gono blames the currency shortages on foreign-exchange currency dealers, the so-called "cash barons", and Zimbabweans are being urged to report anyone flouting currency exchange laws.
Yup, just jail people, that'll solve all the problems.
Zimbabwe has the highest level of inflation in the world at more than 8,000%.
Posted by: Steve White 2007-12-26
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=215477