Quote (or rather quotes) du jour from Newsweek’s interview with Zimbabwe’s central bank governor, Gideon Gono:
I sit back and see the world today crying over the recent credit crunch, becoming hysterical about something which has not even lasted for a year, and I have been living with it for 10 years. My country has had to go for the past decade without credit.
I printed Z$1.5 quadrillion, but the exchange was operating with Z$100 sextillion.
I’ve been condemned by traditional economists who said that printing money is responsible for inflation. Out of the necessity to exist, to ensure my people survive, I had to find myself printing money. I found myself doing extraordinary things that aren’t in the textbooks. Then the IMF asked the U.S. to please print money. I began to see the whole world now in a mode of practicing what they have been saying I should not. I decided that God had been on my side and had come to vindicate me.
Caveat lector: Mr Gono, as well as being a skilled printer of banknotes, is also a highly qualified dissembler of information.
Related links
STATEMENT ON THE RAMPANT FRAUDULENT ACTIVITIES ON THE STOCK EXCHANGE, THE INSURANCE AND PENSION FUND INDUSTRIES AND THE BANKING SECTOR – FT Alphaville
Lavish life of Mugabe’s looter-in-chief – Sunday Times