Geldpress

According to the the Financial Times, UK:

Zimbabwe will slash 10 zeros from its currency from Aug. 1, central bank Governor Gideon Gono said on Wednesday in another attempt to bring relief to consumers ravaged by hyperinflation….economic analysts said the move would do nothing to end an economic meltdown blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s policies, which have helped to push official inflation to 2.2 million percent, the world’s highest, and caused shortages of food and foreign currency….Prices are rocketing on a daily basis as ordinary Zimbabweans struggle to survive, prompting the introduction last week of a new 100 billion Zimbabwean dollar note….Businesses justify price hikes as the only measure to avert collapse.

Meanwhile back home in the United States, most people wrongfully assume that we are immune to such extreme economic disasters. In reality, the United States government continues to overspend like a pack of drunken sailors. We are now dependent on China and the middle east for charity. We spent $430 billion in fiscal year 2007 just to pay interest on the national debt, which currently is over $9.5 trillion dollars. That massive overspending requires us to sell treasury bonds to the Chinese in rapidly increasing amounts. But the Chinese are becoming increasingly nervous about our ability to make payments on the treasuries they own. From the U.K. Telegraph:

A sharp drop in foreign holdings of US Treasury bonds over the last five weeks has raised concerns that China is quietly withdrawing its funds from the United States, leaving the dollar increasingly vulnerable.

For additional reading:

The United States has not had a balanced budget since 1957.

CNN continues to report on budgets it does not understand.

Also, I highly recommend the following book, endorsed by Warren Buffett, Thomas Friedman and Paul Volcker:

Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About It by Peter G. Peterson