You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
East/Subsaharan Africa
Mugabenomics
2003-05-30
With an inflation rate probably nearer 500% than the official figure of 300%, prices are shooting up daily, making Zim-Bob-We possibly the world's fastest-documented contracting economy all thanks to Uncle Bob, who has always seemingly been bent on defying even the most basic laws of economics. Take for example his legendary dismissal of his finance ministers (the last one to taste his wrath was the literate but timid Simba Makoni, now tragically being touted as a presidential hopeful) and his passionate belief that the law of supply and demand does not apply to Zimbabwe.
That goes back to the disbelief in Cause and Effect. It's not only Arabs...
If anything is in short supply, Mugabe imposes price controls. The absurdity of Mugabenomics reached its zenith in the late 1980s when former cabinet minister Maurice Nyagumbo the liberation hero who had been incarcerated in prison the longest (20 years) by white minority leader Ian Smith committed suicide (or was he done in) after he could not understand why he was being humiliated in public for helping an agricultural co-operative to acquire a vehicle and selling it for above prescribed prices.
Making a profit is bad. Everybody to the left of anybody knows that...
One of the principal pillars of Mugabenomics, of course, is his apparent belief that a country cannot go broke. Under this misguided approach, he has used fixed assets to pay for recurrent expenditure: to the extent that he has even mortgaged land in his desperate attempts to get fuel from the Libyans — the same land that he says he is so keen to see get into the hands of ordinary Zimbabweans. Many Zimbabweans trace the beginning of their economic problems to payments made by Mugabe to war veterans in 1997, which cost the fiscus billions of unbudgeted Zimbabwe dollars. This launched the now official policy of printing paper money, which has fuelled inflation. Then there was the devastating blow dealt to the economy a year later, in 1998, when Mugabe greedily and expediently decided to get enmeshed in the Congo war. Although this war benefited many of his cronies as they looted the Congo's resources it proved to be a misadventure of monumental proportions; the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Zimbabwe has never been the same since then.
Posted by:Fred Pruitt

#2  To the tune of "Bad" by Michael Jackson

Your dough is mine, yeah that is right.
'Cause I'm the man who has the might
I'll try to save economy
By printing out some more money.
'Cause I, run Zimbabwe, give it to me, all right!

My name is Bob; I'm number one!
The greatest tyrant 'neath the sun
If one of my cronies you are
Then in this life, you will go far.

Don't try me to limit
Or the boneyard you will see
When I get those luckily rare
Moments of clarity

I know I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
I know I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
I know I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
And I'll make my econ policies and I'll go and show the world
Who's mad!

From Libya I'll get our needs
The people's land pays for the deeds.
I'll use my policies racist
To tightly clench my iron fist
Anyone who dares to cross me
Lands in a cemetery
Don't try me to limit
Or the boneyard you will see
When I get those luckily rare
Moments of clarity

I know I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
I know I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
I know I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
And inflation's at an alarming rate; let me tell you one again
Who's mad!

I try to save my own 2@#
So why'm I in disgrace!?
Why have I in the global
Village lost much face!?

Because I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
Because I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
Because I'm mad! I'm mad! And I ruin Zimbabwe
And the whole world knows that I'm insane; with my actions I tell them
Who's mad!
Posted by: Korora   2003-05-30 19:19:53  

#1  These clowns make Castro look like Donald Trump.
Posted by: tu3031   2003-05-30 10:21:06  

00:00