Earlier in the summer TMR reported the runaway inflation in Zimbabwe, which was running at 11.2 million percent. The government was issuing $1 million bills, which were essentially worthless.
Schools built by foreign aid are going unattended as teachers must charge their students in order to afford teaching. The families of those students cannot afford to pay and so the best educational system in all of Africa, once providing better than 90% literacy rate, has now fallen into ruin.
The government has only recently admitted to the Cholera epidemic that has swept the nation claiming more than 360 lives since August. Earlier in the year, amid growing unrest over the validity of elections that many believe were stolen by Mugabe, more than 5000 farms were seized by the government from their white landowners.
Zimbabwe, once the breadbasket of Africa, cannot feed its people.
“Excessively cheap money in the US was a driver of today’s crisis. I am deeply concerned about whether we are now reinforcing this trend through measures being adopted in the US and elsewhere and whether we could find ourselves in five years facing the exact same crisis.” -- Angela Merkel
As the summer's skyrocketing oil prices caused a crisis in fuel prices led to a meltdown in world financial markets as the US subprime market collapsed, the government policy of throwing money at the problem has incurred criticism.
The socialist leaning Europeans are now critical of Merkel for taking a more fiscally responsible approach and not creating money out of paper to solve the short-term problem. While the Bush Administration and Congressional Democrats have attempted to paper over the problem in the United States, some of the more Conservative governments of the EU have attempted to hold the line on Socialist solutions.
Economists and politicians quickly questioned whether all member states would step up as required, or whether individual governments’ responses would diverge from the Commission’s suggested measures.
“Angela Merkel and other conservative leaders such as [Italian premier Silvio] Berlusconi may well water down the plan and refuse to make the necessary national investments,” said Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, the former Danish prime minister who heads the Socialist party in the European parliament.
Despite projections of 7.5% economic growth in the coming year, the People's Bank of China slashed interest rates by one percent, reflecting worldwide fears of recession.
The latest rate reduction, the fourth such cut in the last ten weeks, comes as workers throughout China fear job losses amid protests against government actions. Workers in Dongguan rioted at the Kai Da toy factory, turning over and burning police vehicles.
While 7.5% growth would seem wonderful by Western standards, the emerging economy of China requires at least a 7% rate simply to employ new students graduating from college and entering the work force.
As economic and social expectations have risen throughout China, a sudden worldwide downturn could foment unrest in China that would require drastic governmental crackdowns similar to those during the "Great Leap Forward."
During that period, millions of people were purged by Chairman Mao, but in today's internet age, such an action could not be as easily covered up or explained.
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson