Zimbabwe Inflation (update)

The latest official inflation figure for February is reportedly
165,000%.

Should the inflationary pressure maintain its recent momentum till
year end,
then Zimbabwe's official inflation will be 2,017,000 % by mid year
further
worsening to 24,672,000% by year end.

Once inflation reaches such high levels as Zimbabwe's, it tends to
move at
an accelerated pace. This is based on current trends -- price
controls,
shortages, money supply and exchange rate disequilibrium. It should be
noted
that only three months ago, inflation was around 20,000, now it's 10
times
higher.

- New Zimbabwe - 14 April 2008

And... will probably stay as higher or higher until the election gets
sorted out. Had a funny feeling about that last time we discussed
this topic. After having read a few articles to catch up, yup - what
a mess.

The barter system knows no inflation ...

Marx commented on that as well. Religion being the opium of the
masses and the unequivocal pay rates for work performed. Few really
talk about his financial revelations but rather to discuss the "s" and
"c" -ism words.

Just a thought - what interest are they offering on savings accounts?!?!

David.

On Apr 19, 5:47 pm, "David French"
wrote:

Just a thought - what interest are they offering on savings accounts?!?!

David.

450%

Not worth it if inflation is 165,000%.

Blair

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:47:17 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:05:17 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

wrote in message
...

Dunno about that, but I didn't read about the concentration camp
ideals in his writings.

Many others did read, like in this example:
Even the efforts to fight Marxism with its own weapons have inevitably taken
a Marxist turn. Both Naziism and Fascism, Biographer Schwarzschild points
out, are Marxist mutations whose predestined political form is therefore the
police state. In Nazi concentration camps, as in Russian forced-labor camps,
Karl Marx was the presiding genius. In the name of human progress, Marx has
probably caused more death, misery, degradation and despair than any man who
ever lived.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...3698-1,00.html

However, stating that Marx was behind all of that is like saying that
I started the Rwandan massacre of 1994. To attribute all of that to
Marx's writings is absurd. Even you can realize that.

snip
Further, I wonder how many of the great
masses know that he is not Russian, but German and Jewish?

It is difficult to imagine that somebody named Karl Marx can be taken for a
Russian :-) As for his Jewishness, eventually take a look at the article: A
Comprehensive Look at Marx the Antisemite, in http://marxwords.blogspot.com/
or at many other sources.

He was ashamed of being of Hebrew nature, but once the spots are on
the leopard, it's quite hard to change them.

So, in closing on this, I have tended to stick with the economic Marx
instead of the communist, political Marx.

There is only one Marx, the communist one, in all his writings.

Wow. Sorry to hear that. I must have read the wrong book(s) then.
--- :^)

In a sense, the Marx stamps
issued have served him up on a pedestal of all things communism and
have done him an injustice about his other writings. I am neither
socialist nor communist...

No stamps on Marx anymore, which is a good sign of the evolution of the
mankind. I'm neither an antisocialist nor an anticommunist but a man of
freedom. BTW, the Zimbabwe inflation (this thread's subject) is also a
consequence of Marx ideas.

Actually, it's a case of Russian expansionism in Africa, much like the
killing of Lumumba in the Congo was in stopping it. The same was
tried in Angola and other places.

On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:47:56 +0100, "David French"
wrote:


The latest official inflation figure for February is reportedly
165,000%.

Should the inflationary pressure maintain its recent momentum till
year end,
then Zimbabwe's official inflation will be 2,017,000 % by mid year
further
worsening to 24,672,000% by year end.

Once inflation reaches such high levels as Zimbabwe's, it tends to
move at
an accelerated pace. This is based on current trends -- price
controls,
shortages, money supply and exchange rate disequilibrium. It should be
noted
that only three months ago, inflation was around 20,000, now it's 10
times
higher.

- New Zimbabwe - 14 April 2008

And... will probably stay as higher or higher until the election gets
sorted out. Had a funny feeling about that last time we discussed
this topic. After having read a few articles to catch up, yup - what
a mess.

The barter system knows no inflation ...

Marx commented on that as well. Religion being the opium of the
masses and the unequivocal pay rates for work performed. Few really
talk about his financial revelations but rather to discuss the "s" and
"c" -ism words.

Just a thought - what interest are they offering on savings accounts?!?!

What savings accounts?

wrote in message
...
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:47:17 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

In Nazi concentration camps, as in Russian forced-labor camps,
Karl Marx was the presiding genius. In the name of human progress, Marx
has
probably caused more death, misery, degradation and despair than any man
who
ever lived.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...3698-1,00.html

However, stating that Marx was behind all of that is like saying that
I started the Rwandan massacre of 1994. To attribute all of that to
Marx's writings is absurd. Even you can realize that.

I don't see the relationship between Marx, you and the Rwanda but, despite
of my advanced age ;-) I'm still able to realize the power of some bad
ideas, Tracy.

Here is the expression of this power (communist massacres and some related
stamps):

Katyn: http://www.marci-postale.com/History/Katyn/katyn.htm
Danube - Black Sea Canal:
http://www.marci-postale.com/Canal/rom-communism.htm
Cultural Revolution:
http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/Chin...-directive.htm
Ukrainian Famines: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/Ukraine/ukr-famines.htm
Forgotten (and rediscovered) Tibet:
http://www.artonstamps.org/My%20Colu...nism/Tibet.htm

--
Victor Manta

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

wrote in message
...

Few really talk about his financial revelations but rather to discuss the
"s" and "c" -ism words.

Just FYI: ...Marx's premises, reasoning and prophecies are filled with
fallacies... It follows that since Marxian _economic_ (emphasis added by
V.M.) analysis is based on a few false premises, its conclusions built on
them collapse as well. ...
http://www.m1-garand.com/Info%20Page...infopage33.htm

The same applies for the "marxist" stamps.

--
Victor Manta

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:11:49 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:47:17 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

In Nazi concentration camps, as in Russian forced-labor camps,
Karl Marx was the presiding genius. In the name of human progress, Marx
has
probably caused more death, misery, degradation and despair than any man
who
ever lived.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...3698-1,00.html

However, stating that Marx was behind all of that is like saying that
I started the Rwandan massacre of 1994. To attribute all of that to
Marx's writings is absurd. Even you can realize that.

I don't see the relationship between Marx, you and the Rwanda but, despite
of my advanced age ;-) I'm still able to realize the power of some bad
ideas, Tracy.

OK, lessee...

Here is the expression of this power (communist massacres and some related
stamps):

You said "this". You didn't say Marx.

Katyn: http://www.marci-postale.com/History/Katyn/katyn.htm
Danube - Black Sea Canal:
http://www.marci-postale.com/Canal/rom-communism.htm
Cultural Revolution:
http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/Chin...-directive.htm
Ukrainian Famines: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/Ukraine/ukr-famines.htm
Forgotten (and rediscovered) Tibet:
http://www.artonstamps.org/My%20Colu...nism/Tibet.htm

Marx wasn't there for any of those events and does not deserve to be
chided for his non-action.

I do believe, however, that the living Stalin had a great big hand in
Katyn (just watched a movie in Polish and subtitled) & the Ukrainian
famines, let alone plenty of gulags and pogroms against people who
were mostly not doing wrong.

As per Tibet, the living Chinese had a hand in that. Marx wasn't
there.

I will follow up with a real life situation that will describe what
you're trying to say. King Leopold II owned (yes, himself) The Congo
Free State. He never put foot one in it. Having said that, his
minions were told (including Stanley) to do what was needed to procure
rubber, ivory, diamonds and other resources. In the wake of that
fiasco, between 1885 and 1908, an low end of 10 million and a high end
of 20 million indigenous Congolese were killed. Leopold II knew all
about it and trashed for it by Mark Twain and other writers.

....but, we don't talk about Africa's woes. It's always Europe and
America.

Marx is soooo far removed from the Bolshevik / Communist uprising of
1917. Although he wrote many things, he didn't command Lenin, Stalin,
Mao, Castro, Pol Pot and plenty of other tinhorns to commit these
atrocities.

That IS the DIFFERENCE. He must have led them from his grave.

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 13:42:42 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .

Few really talk about his financial revelations but rather to discuss the
"s" and "c" -ism words.

Just FYI: ...Marx's premises, reasoning and prophecies are filled with
fallacies... It follows that since Marxian _economic_ (emphasis added by
V.M.) analysis is based on a few false premises, its conclusions built on
them collapse as well. ...
http://www.m1-garand.com/Info%20Page...infopage33.htm

The same applies for the "marxist" stamps.

Actually, according to Marx scholar Jon Elster, his was in step with
time & history whereas other writers of the day were attempting the
self-evident routine.

Marx's writings are far from perfect and so are some of the stamps
printed with him recognized on them. I do not praise the man as being
the one-all, end-all for all time - I simply looked at a few concepts
he was writing on and they make perfect sense to me.

Commodity Fetishism
Alienation
Exchange Value
Zoon Politikon

From "New Ideas From Dead Economists" by Todd Buchholz, I quote a few
lines from page 135:

"Workers, even under socialism, would not get the full value of their
work. The surplus would, however go to the people for collective
services."

Hmmm...

"What would communism really mean? We do not know. Marx deliberately
avoided leaving recipes for the cookshops of the future. Without a
recipe, Marxism as a governing system became the political equivalent
of sausage: a cheap way to squeeze a committee's goals into a shape
that can be fed to others".

Ahh, I see now where the sausage has been mangled by those who
followed...

"Marx suggested that ultimately, the state would wither away. In the
meantime a dictatorship of the proletariat would rule."

Well, it seems that the so-called Marxists truly followed the "leader"
of all this madness he's accused of. Looks to me like the sausages
got really fat, instead of withering away. This is where I make my
distinction between Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism and Castroism and
Marx. Where's the "whither"?

"Future Marxists would have to figure out how to implement the plan
(manifesto). Not entirely optimistic about the splintered socialist
movements in Europe, Marx once declared that he was no longer a
Marxist."

Well, that makes one think...

Was Marx the perfect philosopher, economist or even revolutionary? No,
by all means. Does he make one stand up and think a little clearer
instead of the unwashed masses staying as "sheeple"? Yes. Would a
Marxist state, as he wrote about it, be a positive thing today? No
way, Jose. It seems we're already moving towards a global government
anyway - we simply have different departments, called countries.

Back to Belgian RR stamps and soaking some U.S. kill-o-ware.

wrote in message
...
On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 09:11:49 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:47:17 +0200, "Victor Manta"
wrote:

In Nazi concentration camps, as in Russian forced-labor camps,
Karl Marx was the presiding genius. In the name of human progress, Marx
has
probably caused more death, misery, degradation and despair than any man
who
ever lived.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...3698-1,00.html

However, stating that Marx was behind all of that is like saying that
I started the Rwandan massacre of 1994. To attribute all of that to
Marx's writings is absurd. Even you can realize that.

Here is the expression of this power (communist massacres and some related
stamps):
...
You said "this". You didn't say Marx.
Marx wasn't there for any of those events and does not deserve to be
chided for his non-action.

Non-action, not responsible? Well, what about this stamp:
http://www.stamprussia.com/1793b.jpg ?

37th birth anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution" (GOSR),
USSR, issued 1954.
In your oppinion, do Marx + Engels + Lenin + Stalin appear purely by chance
on this stamp? I wonder if the term Marxism (!) - Leninism is something you
heard about.

The stamp is labeled: "The GOSR opened a new era in the history of mankind -
the era of communism." New era indeed, even a "great" one (full of crimes
agains humanity), the father of communism being... guess who.

--
Victor Manta

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Communism on Stamps: http://reds-on.postalstamps.biz/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The latest official inflation figure for February is reportedly
165,000%.

Should the inflationary pressure maintain its recent momentum till
year end,
then Zimbabwe's official inflation will be 2,017,000 % by mid year
further
worsening to 24,672,000% by year end.

Once inflation reaches such high levels as Zimbabwe's, it tends to
move at
an accelerated pace. This is based on current trends -- price
controls,
shortages, money supply and exchange rate disequilibrium. It should be
noted
that only three months ago, inflation was around 20,000, now it's 10
times
higher.

- New Zimbabwe - 14 April 2008

And... will probably stay as higher or higher until the election gets
sorted out. Had a funny feeling about that last time we discussed
this topic. After having read a few articles to catch up, yup - what
a mess.

The barter system knows no inflation ...

Marx commented on that as well. Religion being the opium of the
masses and the unequivocal pay rates for work performed. Few really
talk about his financial revelations but rather to discuss the "s" and
"c" -ism words.

Just a thought - what interest are they offering on savings accounts?!?!

What savings accounts?

Well, apparently there is a branch of the Bank of Zimbabwe in London - and
it is still open for business!! They regularly run out of banknotes, and had to
issue a $10,000,000 note in March - in a hurry. I wonder what you can buy
with it now.....

David.