I'm seeing a parallel between Zimbabwe and the United States.
- We too have wars, in Afghanistan and Iraq and against drugs and terrorists (causing the government to print and borrow more money);
- We have many people on welfare and other government handout programs, including veterans (causing the government to print and borrow more money);
- All commodity prices are rising, making it more expensive to drive to work, eat, and conduct business. Grains are being diverted for ethanol instead of food;
- U.S. lenders are having problems because borrowers are having problems (our land grab is occurring through the banks);
- We need the rest of the world too—to buy our Treasury Bonds—to finance the wars and other government programs;
- While the world uses U.S. dollars readily, the value of U.S. dollars is plunging. It will take longer for the U.S. dollar to suffer the same fate as the Zim dollar because most international trade is done with U.S. dollars and it will take some time for the world to change that, but in the long run, if the U.S. doesn’t change its course, it will end up with many of the same problems as Zimbabwe;
- A metallic (gold or silver) standard will not happen in the U.S. That would limit the government’s spending ability too much;
- The United States’ infrastructure is crumbling and state governments are not rebuilding it. Neither is the federal government or private enterprise. No new nuclear power plants have been built within the last 30 years;
- The United States doesn’t close its failing banks, it simply merges them into other banks or bails them out by printing (and lending) more money to them.
All these things are leading to more inflation. Of course, this doesn’t even consider the new competition from China , India , etc. for natural resources. Prices will rise from the competition, even without inflation. At some point, the U.S. dollar may not be desirable any longer. Zimbabweans may have to use Euros instead.
Robert Jackson Smith