From Bread Basket to Basket Case

1700% inflation. Reflect on the enormity of that number for a moment. Folks in the United States worry when the inflation rate creeps to 3%.

Zimbabwe has an inflation rate of 1700%. You can't print paper fast enough to cover the price spikes.

The United Nations estimates there are now more than three million Zimbabwe exiles in South Africa alone. That's about one-fourth of Zimbabwe's population. Many more have fled to Europe, Australia, the United States and Canada.

What Zimbabweans are leaving behind is a country spiraling out of control. Inflation is the highest in the world -- at more than 1,700 percent. The country's currency -- the Zimbabwe dollar -- is being printed so fast that Morgan Tsvangirai, the country's opposition leader, declared, "Zimbabwe is the only nation in the world where millionaires go to bed hungry."

Eight out of 10 Zimbabweans are out of work, according to the CIA fact book, which profiles the countries of the world. Many can't afford to send their children to school and life expectancy due to the onslaught of HIV-AIDS, as well as the current economic woes, is among the lowest in the world. (Read about Zimbabweans so desperate for food they eat rats)

Add to all this what happened just weeks ago: the battered, bruised and bloodied images of opposition members who'd been savagely attacked while in police custody.

Mugabe had managed with this single incident to turn his splintering opposition into global heroes. Whatever Mugabe's intentions had been, these pictures, Africa watchers say, had shown a gross miscalculation on his part and a possible sign he may be starting to lose his grip.

All that is left in the wake is death, misery, and a failed economic policy that is sadly repeated ad nasuem by know-nothings who think that socialist policies will improve the economies and lives of countries around the world.

Thank you Mugabe for once again highlighting your incompetence.

Of course, [T]hugo Chavez will see your problems and believe that he can enact the same measures you did, but will not end up with a basket case of an economy because he'll do it with more vigor and with blinders on. Such is always the way with leftists.