History and My Story » Zimbabwe

Quantitative Easing vs. Printing Money: Will the U.S. become Zimbabwe?

buell — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 16:05:31 +0000

Many of my IRL friends and acquaintances are pointing out that the United States is printing more money and using it to help alleviate our economic crisis. Other democracies like the UK and Japan are doing the same. So, does this mean we will go the way of Zimbabwe or post-WWI Germany? Isn’t printing new money always a bad idea? Well, there is a new economic practice (first used in Japan in about 2000) called “quantitative easing.” Sure, to me it just sounds like we are merely printing more money….and this makes me very frightened for our economy. However, here is an economist on CNN explaining the difference:

Power Sharing in Zimbabwe; Elections in Israel

buell — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 19:18:09 +0000

I’ve been so wrapped up in the “stimulus” that I haven’t been paying much attention to world news. Here are some updates from CNN:

Power Sharing:

A Nation Suffering:

Election Results–or non-results in Israel. Also, good information on Israeli politics:

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

buell — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:13:46 +0000

See November 26th post to get the full story.

Legacy of Imperialism: Zimbabwe

buell — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:00:09 +0000

This was the news a few days ago:
Embedded video from CNN Video

So, what is going on in the former British colony of Rhodesia? Robert Mugabe has been Zimbabwe’s only ruler since indepence in 1980. In recent years his administration has been accused of voter fraud (oppostion leader Morgan Tsvangirai appeared to win the presidential election in March 2008), destroying the homes and businesses of opposition supporters (as part of a program called “Operation Restore Order”) and an economic campaign (price controls and land redistribution that removed white farmers from their land) which resulted in widespread shortages of food and basic commodities. Inflation has risen 100,000%. Everyone is a millionaire, but it costs $1 million to buy a roll of toilet paper! HIV/AIDS is an epidemic and recently an outbreak of cholera. The average life expentancy in Zimbabwe is age 44.

Still, Africa and Zimbabwe in particular is rich in natural resources. One would assume that the value of these resources would remain consistent and help end or at lease alleviate the economic crises. However, this CNN report tells a different story:

Embedded video from CNN Video

This is a link to a BBC report from September. Why is the international community not helping Zimbabwe?