Teachers reported the printing of bank notes from millions to billions and then trillions skewed their pupils’ sense of numeracy, making them fail to grasp the realities of numbers. On one geography field trip, students scoffed at being told granite rocks swept over Zimbabwe by ancient glaciers were 700 million years old. That time frame seemed insignificant. Back then in 2008, 700 million Zimbabwe dollars bought a loaf of bread.
A reader sends this photo along, with the following explanation:
In January of 2009 I traveled to Africa and we took a side trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. I snapped the attached photo at the entry to the falls. Notice how the price of entry in Zimbabwe Dollars is written in chalk. This was so that they could change the price throughout the day as the ZW Dollar lost value.
The above picture, taken in the midst of the Zimbabwe hyperinflation and posted around the internet, illustrates well how fiat money can become nearly worthless when the central bank creates too much of it. I was hoping to put the photo in the next edition of my textbook, but my publisher is having trouble locating the photographer from whom to obtain reprint permission. If you are photographer, or know his name and contact information, or have a similar picture for which you hold copyright, please contact me.
