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Eddie Cross's Website

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Eddie Cross - Bulawayo, Zimbabwe


2006 Articles
25 Dec Unexpected
20 Dec Darkest Hour
18 Dec 4 More Years
11 Dec Fiddling
30 Nov A Queue!
20 Nov Breaking Records
10 Nov Disappointed
2 Nov Spring In Zim
29 Oct How long Oh Lord?
28 Oct Poverty & Leadership
18 Oct Farm Situation
15 Oct Millstones
13 Oct Silent Cities
9 Oct Hwange
3 Oct To Protect
25 Sept Alice in W.land
18 Sept Next Week
17 Sept 7 Years
8 Sept Magic Matopos
5 Sept Lousy Year
21 Aug Let my people go
5 Aug Living on the Edge
4 Aug More Chaos
2 Aug New Beginnings
1 Aug Chaos
31 July Morgan Tsvangiryi
25 July End in sight?
16 July Regional Impact
12 July The Big Dick
5 July Leadership
3 July Walking on Water
18 June Into the breech
13 June Break through
3 June Tiger Fishing
31 May Remembrance Day
23 May Prognostications
18 May Floating
14 May The Winter
7 May How Long?
5 May May Day
25 Apr People Power
20 Apr Statistics
18 Apr Chernobyl
10 Apr Rats!
7 Apr Paranoia
4 Apr Running out of time
1 Apr Making a Difference
25 Mar Self Destruction
20 Mar Political Trees
12 Mar Funding
11 Mar Directions Please?
26 Feb An African Storm
23 Feb Getting it all wrong
21 Feb Deliberate Confusion
12 Feb Racist Rantings
5 Feb What Next?
31 Jan The Crunch
29 Jan Starving Children
21 Jan Its not cricket
18 Jan Letter to R.M.
15 Jan Absolute Nonsense
9 Jan New Strategies
8 Jan Funding
2 Jan Options

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2004-01

       

Complete Pandemonium

Today - the day after Gideon Gono, the Governor of the Reserve Bank, announced the reduction of the numerical values of the Zimbabwe dollar by three digits, has been characterized by chaos and confusion.

Barclays Bank and Beverly closed their doors; Standard Bank traded but advised their clients to write Cheques using the new denominations with the endorsement 'Revalued' on the cheque. Zimbank simply traded as normal - refusing to issue the new currency. Major firms closed for the day to try and sort themselves out before reopening. Others refused to accept Cheques and the 'old currency' which technically now is illegal tender. Others simply continued trading as if nothing had happened.

Everywhere the business community was trying to sort out what to do - close their accounts, take stock, get balances from the Bank and then reopen with a new set of accounts and data on their computers. How to work the new numbers with Cheques still coming in and both types of currency in circulation?

The new notes have not put in an appearance yet but it is clear that when they do this will create yet more confusion - they are in the following denominations (all paper 'bearer bonds': -

1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 50 cents, 1 dollar, 5 dollars, 10 dollars etc. up to 100 000 dollars. The first note is worth 10 'old' dollars, the last is worth 100 million 'old' dollars. The cost of printing the smaller notes, which will be virtually worthless, must have been at least 50 new dollars per note (50 000 'old' dollars) so the loss on this operation must run to many billions of 'old' dollars. A complete waste of money as the only unit that makes any sense is the 1 dollar note and even then this is so small as to be a nuisance. The 100 000 note will attract the forgers big time!

It is clear there was very little consultation and planning for this huge exercise. I am told the Police have desended on Beitbridge in force to stop people bringing the missing trillions back into the country! I feel sorry for all who must now go through the hoop at the border posts. What a waste of time and energy.

One immediate casualty - the parallel market has gone crazy, the dollar is trading at 80 000 to 1 on the Rand, 750 000 to 1 on the US dollar and over a million to the pound Sterling. It is still moving and goodness knows where it will end. The slashing of interest rates will force surplus money into the stock market and we can also expect equitiesd to go into the stratosphere. Fuel is trading in a confused market at 600 000 'old' dollars today.

Eddie Cross
1st August 2006