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Originally Posted by Twisted Pharaoh  Well who cares about inflation? It's only interesting relatively to credit, which is not going to happen, you already explained that. |
Ah, this would be the Zimbabwe Consensus? Here's a picture of actual Zimbabwean currency. I doubt anyone usesntheir $1 bills, although they might make good toilet paper, and certainly would be cheaper:
In searching fornthis image, I found that it isnactually out of date. It only goes up to the $250 million dollar bill. In 2008 they began printing the $500 million dollar bills. Thisnis not a joke. A few years ago, before they started printing the really big bills, inflation was making things so bad that you had to begin counting the bills to pay for your lunch whe you were still eating...for the few who could afford to do so. Oh dear...that was 2008, now they're printing $100 billion notes, which will buy you three eggs. I am not making this up.
I doubt that Argentina would experience that sort of hyperinflation, but it should serve as a cautionary tale. Massive inflation like that destroys savings, destorys commerce, destroys the country. It doss affect thingsnlike credit, sure, but the bigger effect is on the nation's own money supply. A "healthy" inflation amount varies depending on conditions, and deflation can be just as bad, but a healthy inflation.level might be 2-3%. Argentina's official rate is 8-10%, and that's figures from their government that nobody trusts. Unofficially, 20-25% is the generally accepted amount. From what I understand, this is accompanied (as onenmight expect) with a similar increase innprices for consumer goods. Probably the only good thing it might do is prevent people from saving their money and cause them to spend more, which is likely why you see those figures for economic growth.
The overallneffect would be as if someone cut your salary by 20-25% every year. This year you're making $40,000, life is good. Next year you're making $30,000 and things are still ok, just have to budget. Next year you're making $22,500 and you've really had to cut back. The next year you're making $17,000. And it keeps on sliding year after year.
Now imagine you're the President of a country with massove inflation. The people are getting restless. They're msrching in the streets. They want someone to blame. You're still popular, but it might not last very long. What do you do?
Maybe you can convince people that an unpopular minority group is responsible, shift their anger towards the scapegoats. Maybe there's an island offshore owned by an empire on the other side of the world, so you could blame that nation for your troubles and seize the islands, which shifts blame and makes you look like a successful leader. Oh, and you'll need to make sure you control the news sources so you can make sure that nobody prints anything critical of your rule, because that would
make you look bad give aid and comfort to
your the nation's the people's enemies.
Banana Republic, it's not just a chain of fashion stores.
On the bright side, so far at least Fernandez hasn't tried scapegoating any minority groups yet. She has done the other things, though, which is why our British friends are a little bit worried. It also demonstrates that she's fairly desperate, because unlike America, the British actually do have a lot of experience with the whole Empire business. Unfortunately, their navy has gotten to the point that if the Battle of Trafalgar had been fought today, it'd be won by Morrocan teenagers on jetskis, but the USA has 9 aircraft carriers and bills to pay (oh dear lord, I just had this mental image of Barak Obama as Alois Hammer).
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Any place is great to live, as long as I get Internet access, food, water and not too much pollution.
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Wow. Well from what I understand, Zimbabwe doesn't have much pollution...