The Trillion Dollar Website (a story of quantitative easing)

[tapiwa]

As a Zimbabwean myself, I would have to say that most of the posters here totally missed the point of the site.

The site was not a critique of quantitative easing. It is a commentary on the Zim government's attack on a newspaper that dared to criticize their fiscal policy (in this case a whole lot of printing money, or ... ahem quantitative easing).

The paper then fought back, using this effectively worthless money (available in huge quantities, and cheaper than paper), to front their guerrilla campaign.

Looking at the box of Zim dollars under my desk, you can see how the currency got steadily worse (physically), as the currency got steadily worse (economically). The last straw was the EU sanctions that then prevented the German company from exporting banknote 'paper' to Zimbabwe ... the notes after that were sad. Really sad.

Interestingly, at the height of the Zim crisis, a friend of mine in Germany sent me a couple of notes from the hyper inflation days in Germany (apparently, even now, there are still so many of those notes around that they are not worth much). The 1919 '50 mark' note feels like real money (quite oily too), while the 1923 '500 million mark' note, is just a plain paper bill, printed on one side, with just a bit of colour.

When the govt starts printing money on paper, instead of cotton, then you know you are in big trouble.

I suppose the point I was trying to make, was that while you can debate the similarities between the Zim situation and the Fed's quantitative easing, the site is really about the fight between one paper and the Mugabe government.

Incidentally, the Zim Dollar died a couple of years ago. The only currency you will find in widespread use, is the South African Rand, and the US Dollar.

[dev_jim]

Couldn't you just post the link without tacking on a passive aggressive comment? Do you actually think Zimbabwe's actions are even in the same realm as the Fed's quantitative easing?

[haploid]

I do. QE1, QE Lite, and QE2 might not be there, yet. But QE3, QE4, and QE5 are all but inevitable.

It's just a matter of time.

[richcollins]

Different in scale (for now), not in kind.

[uptown]

Physical currency is really nothing more than an agreement between parties that the paper is representative of some value. In actuallity, it's really just another piece of paper, but it's considerably easier to exchange than goats or cows or gallons of fuel.

I'm a fan of their use of the 'Rock Band' typeface on the Trillion Dollar notes.

[rmc]

Currency is based on your belief that the mint won't print lots of money. If you do that, the money becomes worthless. Like in Zimbabwe.

[Cushman]

Not just another piece of paper, though. It's subsidized paper. If the value of a dollar becomes low enough, a physical dollar bill is actually cheaper than a piece of paper.

[richcollins]

It's not just another piece of paper. You have to pay your taxes in dollars and you are forced to settle debts in dollars.

[shin_lao]

Actually currency is more a debt than an agreement.

When you have a 20 € bill, the European Central bank "owns you 20 €".

Since people have faith in the bank ability to pay its debt, everybody uses the note as money.

[oceanician]

I'd genuinely like to exchange some money for some trillion dollar notes....It'd be great playing Monopoly with them eh :)

[prawn]

Multi-trillion dollar notes are all over eBay and seem pretty cheap.

[groby_b]

I'd read it, except the cacophony of colors in the background makes it a total disaster. (Not to mentioned the rather stupid web interface.)

Ah well, I'll try again post-coffee

[adam-a]

The "cacophony of colors" are the devalued bank notes which are the entire point of the presentation. FWIW I rather liked the site, it's a much more pleasant way to view slides than some I've seen (scribd being a prime example).

[pzxc]

I hate websites that make you click back 50 times instead of once after reading what should be a single page.