DFW HOYA
Platinum Hoya (over 5000 posts)
Posts: 5,912
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Post by DFW HOYA on Jul 31, 2008 7:14:03 GMT -5
Think it's bad in the US? Welcome to Zimbabwe, where the price of bread doubles every three days and the inflation rate is between 9-12 million percent a year. Last week, a loaf cost $50 billion. Thus week it's $200 billion. (On Friday, they will cut 10 zeroes off the currency.) afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ixQQ2vGzuKB8r5qmOYlyn3Si7r9Q |
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Post by strummer8526 on Jul 31, 2008 8:03:17 GMT -5
Yeah, that's a phrase that I hope I never hear in real life: "Welcome to Zimbabwe."
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Boz
Blue & Gray (over 10,000 posts)
123 Fireballs!
Posts: 10,355
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Post by Boz on Jul 31, 2008 8:03:36 GMT -5
To quote Frederick Fringer, Jr. (aka Herman Gottlieb):
"I've got a million dollars!
I've got a million Brazilian dollars!
Absolutely worthless!"
Anyone know how I can get my hands on one of those $100 billion notes? That would be pretty cool to have. (I looked in my cereal boxes to see if I could send in for one, but no luck.)
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thornski
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 155
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Post by thornski on Jul 31, 2008 11:26:21 GMT -5
My personal favorite hyperinflation statistics come out of Hungary post-WWII, which I believe is generally regarded as the worst hyperinflation ever...
The inflation rate was 4.19 * 10^16 percent...PER MONTH
On 8/31/45, the exchange rate with the dollar was 1320 pengo per dollar
On 7/31/46, the exchange rate with the dollar was 4.6 * 10^29 pengo per dollar.
If I were alive then I would've loved to exchange currency just to say that I owned 4.6*10^29 of any amount of currency.
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Post by atlasfrysmith on Jul 31, 2008 16:13:26 GMT -5
Sadly, Zimbabwe is revaluing their currency starting on Aug. 1. I believe they are removing 10 zeroes. Doesn't address the inflation problem, but avoids the need for scientific notation. At some point you've got to think that seashells or gigantic stone wheels are really a better option, don't you?
edit-ok it would help if I read the first post in the thread. Ugh.
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