Zimbabwe: How NOT To Run an Economy

From trillion dollar bills to extreme inequality, let's look at some of Zimbabwe's failures in running an economy.

[Sam_Sam]

Zimbabwe might actually become a space fairing nation due to their inflation rate.

[donaldmcronald]

As far as I know, Zimbabwe imported printed bank notes of their own currency from Germany (they couldn‘t print enough money on their own). By the time the money had arrived, it was already worthless. It‘s a shame seeing a country fail.

[somebody]

Printing more money to combat a bad economy is something I'd like to call an economic aneurysm

[TofuJ]

Mugabe is actually an economic genius, he made the Zimbabwe people a trillionaire overnight

[TheNo]

Just here to confirm some numbers. My last Zimbabwe dollar paycheck before we all adopted the US$ was 3.5 trillion. It was locked in a bank account. We only had access to 200m withdrawals per day and the queues to draw were hours long sometimes. Often the bank would run out of cash before a small number of us could withdraw anything.

That 3.5t was worth about a months groceries. Within a week, it was worth a weeks worth.

[somekek]

Its sadly a common trope in Africa, that government is either educated and oppressive or uneducated and incompetent. Only a few countries managed to break this curse.

[scandathepole]

I love 50 Cent, or as we call him in Zimbabwe, 500 billion Zimbabwean dollars

[wafferphotography]

I live in Mozambique, my father gave me a bunch of those trillion notes. I went to school with it. They thought I stole the bank or something. They called my parents. My parents laughed

[orboakin]

As an African (Nigerian) I really appreciate these videos you do on various African countries👍👍. Your coverage is objective, well researched and presented, and fun to watch. You also don't use the same excuses that most westerners and Africans give when discussing Africa's issues i.e. you don't just blame colonialism or racism for our problems but focus on geography, corruption, national unity, and economic systems. I truly appreciate that. Also, this video is a perfect comparison with your Botswana video. While Zimbabwe has more resources and better land, their terrible leadership undermined their post-colonial development while Botswana used good leadership and socioeconomic policies to improve themselves.

[austinwilburn]

I haven’t finished the video but I wanted to add a little fact. The 100 trillion bill is actually only worth around $0.14 cents. A few years ago they reformed the billing of their paper currency and now no longer use such large bills. After they did this, the 100 trillion dollar bill that was only worth .14 cents went up to $25 usd because it became a historical item, as a example of the largest hyper inflation in human history.
I always found that funny how it became so more valuable after it was disestablished.

[tendays]

Zimbabwe in 2004-2005 was hell I can remember lining up with my grandma to get a loaf of bread the lines were incredibly long and the bread would run out. The government tore down unregistered homes because people didn’t vote for them in the elections, operation “kuramba tsvwina” translating to “remove the dirt”, soldiers were sent out to beat people in my neighborhood and so many people living under the poverty line became even more poor, from a small brick home or metal shack with a little land to garden to homeless with no food. My grandparents pension completely destroyed. Worth nothing anymore. And don’t get me started on the HIV and AIDS crisis mixed with a failed Health system. The love of money is the root of all evil. F* Zanu PF.

[peterlbaldwin]

Having lived in Zimbabwe (in it's various stages)for 38 years, there are several inaccuracies in your video clip which I am compelled to mention. You refer almost exclusively to the indigenous peoples as the "Ndebele", who were incidentally an "off-shoot" of the "Zulu" nation of neighbouring South Africa. Yet within Zimbabwe there are three distinct tribal groupings, The "Shona" tribe numerically superior to the Ndebele and the majority of the ruling "Z.A.N.U.Q" party led from independence in 1980 by the despotic and corrupt President Mugabe, until his death. The Ndebele tribe are the second largest in the country but with no real political power and lastly the minority Manica tribe, mostly based around the "Eastern Highlands" of the country. This 3 way tribal mix was/is an ongoing source of tension and problems within the country, most notably between the majority Shona tribe and the minority but more "war-like" Matabele(as you incorrectly called them "Ndebele" which is the name of the language) tribe. The Matabele probably figure so largely in your supposed history as the first treaty in the area was in fact by missionary Robert Moffat, followed some time later by a treaty between Cecil Rhodes', British South Africa Company and the Matabele King Lobengula. Despite the accuracy of the land distribution which you mentioned and the separation of state educational and health facilities along racial lines, it must also be remembered that "Rhodesia" never had the same extent of draconian racial segregation as South Africa under "Apartheid"..!!

[nathanseper]

It is depressing that Mugabe was so horrible and incompetent that people are nostalgic for the racist regime that came before him.

[chairmanm]

My girlfriend is half Rhodesian half South African (White) and I asked her grandfather (Rhodesian) how bad the crime rate is over there considering how bad it is in South Africa and he just said “Agh it’s not bad over there because there’s nothing to steal”. Which in hindsight makes sense…

Also not everyone just up and left by their own decision, her grandfather and their family lived on a farm and got told they have 24 hours to leave or they’d be “dealt with” aka murdered.

So yeah they chased away the only competent workforce they had and subsequently went from the breadbasket of Africa to starving to death.

He grandfather has old Rhodesian notes of $5 and so on which we’re equal to the USD. Next to these notes hangs the Zimbabwean trillion dollar notes…

Fuck Mugabe, I hope the Zimbabwean people one day get out of this desperate situation. It’s truly tragic what ensued there.

[wazzupp]

“We’re free! The Zimbabwean government has saved us all!”

“Oh I wouldn’t say saved, more like *under new management.*”

[rsacitizen]

I really feel sorry for the average Zimbabwean having to suffer because of the political elite

[djmupsyzw]

As someone from Zimbabwe I would say you did a pretty good job researching and presenting this video. Most of the Zimboz have left the country and more continue to leave. The working age is now working outside the country and clearly that spells more disaster for Zim. I pray that one day things change for the ordinary Zimboz because Zim is a very beautiful and naturally rich country but it's just not benefitting the ordinary person. God bless Zim

[MrAsianPie]

For the closing, I think there was a missed opportunity to say, "Of course they knew how to run an An economy to the ground!"

[kurousagi]

Just so folks know, the $10 trillion notes he’s got is worth $30 USD. But only as a collector’s item.

When it was finally removed from circulation in 2015, the Zimbabwean government offered $1 USD for $175 Quadrillion Zimbabwean “Third” Dollars. So the $10 Trillion bill H0ser shows in the beginning was worth .00005714 US dollars at the end of its life. Or about over 1/200th of a US penny. The largest bill was the $100 Trillion bill and that was worth about 1/20th of a US penny or .0005714 US dollars.

[christopherjustice]

“Mugabe was a star. And then the sun came up.” -Nelson Mandela