Generally misunderstood worldwide, inflation is no longer a mystery to the people in Zimbabwe.

They know it’s an increase in the amount of currency that drives down its value as it steals wealth from powerless citizens. Over the past year, Zimbabweans have seen their country’s currency devalued over and over, so that the five-million note no longer has any value and has been replaced, step-by-step, with  25-million, 50-million, 100-million, 500-million, and now 50-billion Zimbabwe Dollar notes. 

The country’s state-owned printing company that spits out this increasingly valueless paper money has just learned that the German firm supplying the needed bank note paper has stopped supplying it. The published reason for taking such action is widespread belief that the June 27th election won by President Robert Mugabe has been deemed fraudulent by international observers. It could also be that the Germans don’t want to be paid in Zimbabwe Dollars.

As prices for everything in the United States continue their upward climb, some Americans have begun to realize that the U.S. dollar, equally unbacked by anything of value, is losing value. No gold, no silver, nothing but political promises and misinformation stand behind today’s U.S. currency that not too many years ago was labeled “good as gold.” The flood of additional dollars pays for government’s deficits, and each newly created bill derives its value by underhandedly stealing the worth of all existing dollars.

Anyone who has ever received a sound explanation of this criminal activity has likely been told that governments can indeed run out of gold and silver, but they’ll never run out of paper. This is certainly true in the United States. But it’s no longer true in Zimbabwe where the primitive system of barter has returned as desperate people try to survive. 

There’s a lesson here for anyone willing to absorb it. Money has to be either a valuable commodity unto itself, or the paper certificate issued in its stead must be immediately convertible to that valuable commodity. With sound money, a civilization grows and prospers. Without it, expect economic slowdown then collapse. Zimbabwe’s money is virtually worthless, possibly even more expensive to produce than the value printed on each of its bills. Americans had better force a return to sound money or we’ll soon be in the same predicament.