Here's an interesting fact. Remember all those worthless Zimbabwe paper
banknotes? The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Zimbabwe's central bank,
is officially buying them back for cancellation. According to its recent
monetary policy statement,
the RBZ will be demonetizing old banknotes at the "United Nations
rate," that is, at a rate of Z$35 quadrillion to US$1. Stranded Zimbabwe
dollar-denominated bank deposits will also be repurchased.
As a reminder, Zimbabwe endured a hyperinflation that met its demise in
late 2008 when Zimbabweans spontaneously stopped using the Zimbabwe
dollar as either a unit of account or medium of exchange, U.S. dollars
and South African rand being substituted in their place. Along the way,
the RBZ was used by corrupt authorities to subsidize all sorts of crazy schemes, including farm mechanization programs and tourism development facilities.
Upon hearing about the RBZ's buyback, entrepreneurial readers may be
thinking about an arbitrage. Buy up Zimbabwe bank notes and fly them
back to Zimbabwe for redemption at the RBZ's new official rate, making a
quick buck in the process. But don't get too excited. The highest
denomination note ever printed by the RBZ is the $100 trillion note. At
the RBZ's demonetization rate, one $100 trillion will get you...
US$0.003. With these notes selling for US$10 to $20 as collectors items
on eBay, forget it—there's no money to be made on this trade. If you've
already got a few $100 trillion Zimbabwean notes sitting in your
cupboard, you're way better off hoarding them than submitting them to
the RBZ's buyback campaign.
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