Brazil did this in the 90's but with a twist: they created a transition currency, the URV (Real unit of value), and the people believed when they introduced (1:1 to URV) new currency (R$ or Real).<p><a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil" rel="nofollow">http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-f...</a>
It is not new thing, it happened in Germany, Turkey, Yugoslavia... but yes, in Zimbabwe is exaggerated. I bought some bills of hyperinflated currencies through Ebay:<p>One hundred trillion dollars of Zimbabwe.<p>50 million marks of between wars Germany.<p>Some millions of Turkish lira.
Zimbabwe: proof that even when shit goes completely off the rails, people can be cowed into putting up with it. At least they didn't go on an international ethnic cleansing binge like the Nazis did.
I wonder how quickly the US dollar would inflate if it was no longer the "global reserve".<p>We print and waste an enormous amount of money compared to other countries that don't have that luxury.
It is strange using an ATM in Zimbabwe in that it dispenses US dollars. Unlike most US ATMs, it will dispense fifties and hundreds. Larger notes are mostly clean, but dollar bills are absolutely filthy. They are used until they fall apart.<p>Notes are US, but coins are South African rands.
Romania changed their currency way back, but they kept the name of the currency equal, and they even kept using the old currency for some time.<p>So, there I was, getting money from the ATM, thinking I had hit the jackpot :)
I still really want to get a few bags full of Zimbabwean notes and use it to wallpaper a room one day. You'd think that would be easy living in a country right next to them..
Guinea is working is way up there slowly but steadily. We are at $1 = 7249.95 franc. And you basically spend it at the same value. It's time to reset a large part of Africa.
Yugoslavia also had huge hyperinflation in the 90s - <a href="http://www.rogershermansociety.org/yugoslavia.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.rogershermansociety.org/yugoslavia.htm</a><p><i>Between October 1, 1993 and January 24, 1995 prices increased by 5 quadrillion percent. That’s a 5 with 15 zeroes after it.</i>
Zimbabwe. A prime use case for Bitcoin?<p>"At the height of the country’s economic crisis, Zimbabweans had to carry plastic bags bulging with banknotes to buy basic goods. Prices were rising at least twice a day."<p>Bitcoin is often cited as being volatile. Its never been anywhere near as volatile as that ^ (at least not in the last 2 years)
It probably doesn't help that education systems in countries like Zimbabwe is barely able to teach basic numerical skills to a large part of their population.<p>(I don't want to imply this is necessarily the case in Zimbabwe, or everywhere in Africa, but I've heard in some MOOC that people in developing countries tend to have numerical problems with prices)