End Game?

Observers have predicted it many times during the past few years, but some sort of denouement seems imminent in Zimbabwe. NYT:

Prices change daily, if not hourly; one news report last week noted that golfers at a Harare country club were paying for their 19th-hole drinks before teeing off after discovering that prices were rising while they were on the course.

The nation’s industrial production, estimated to be running at only 30 percent of capacity, is grinding to a halt in many places. "The rapid rise in prices is a killer for all concerned," said Iden Wetherell, an editor at the weekly Zimbabwe Independent newspaper in Harare. "What you’re seeing now is people not bothering to go to work. It’s not worth it when their incomes are consumed entirely by transport costs. Things are deteriorating exponentially here."

Mugabe's plan?

Zimbabwe’s government has put forward legislation that would require virtually all publicly traded companies to cede controlling interests to "indigenous" citizens, raising the possibility of a sizable redistribution of the country’s remaining wealth at a time when its economy is collapsing.

The legislation would establish a government fund to help citizens buy stock in public companies...

Yes, keep 'em invested! And why not? If you don't know how Zim's stock market has reacted to the printing press, take a look. Worked like a charm....