As if for the first time, as if for the last time

As if for the first time

The day before yesterday, I went shopping in one of those supermarkets that are now selling groceries in US Dollars. It’s amazing how packed it was. People were shopping like crazy.

I stopped at a shelf that was loaded with mayonnaise. It had been long since I’d seen the stuff on a Zimbabwean supermarket shelf. US$5,00 for a 750g bottle. I was standing there doing some sums in my head, wondering if it was expensive or not, when  up came a woman and her daughter of about ten. (more…)

Written by fungaijames on October 31st, 2008 with 2 comments.
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The ZimDollar Sextillion Looms…

Yesterday, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange shot up in value of capitalisation by 122.18%!  According to Zfn “Today’s 122.18% gain beat the market’s all time record set on June 6 when it jumped by 119.8%.”

The ZSE is now capitalised at Z$497.7 quintillion almost half of a sextillion (21 zeros), from Z$222.8 quintillion . (more…)

Written by fungaijames on July 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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The Quintillion Question

How many zeroes does a quintillion dollars have? Who cares? Even the biggest economies in the world don’t have budgets that big. The world’s biggest economy, the USA, had a GDP of just under US$14 trillion in 2007. So we can rest assured that the world’s economists and accountants don’t have to worry about how to balance quintillion figures. That’s by and large true, except in Zimbabwe… (more…)

Written by fungaijames on April 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
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