24th
Can You Lend Me $100 billion?
In Zimbabwe, it’s no big thing. Well, actually, conditions are so bad there, that’s not even the case. With inflation raging out of control, the country just issued a $100 billion bank note.
(One of the new bills is available on eBay for about $80 U.S., which is officially equal to about $1.5 trillion Zimbabwe, if you were wondering.)
When I first heard about this, my question was, “Why don’t they just lop off a bunch of zeroes?” Apparently they do.
When I was in Thailand in 2006, I thought the exchange rate of about 40 Thai baht to $1 U.S. was pretty crazy. We would exchange a $100 travelers check for 4,000 baht and pretend like we were millionaires. (Sure seemed like it, with street food often costing 10 or 20 baht.)
But there’s something surprisingly sad about about using a $1 million Zimbabwe note as toilet paper (see first IHT article). What’s surprisingly amusing is this official release by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe about its efforts to thwart “cash barons.”
