Popular monetarism
IN ZAIRE even the beggars are millionaires. Inflation—around 600% last year—has reduced the official exchange rate from three new zaires to the dollar in 1993, when it was introduced, to 162,000 this week. The commonest note, the 10,000, is worth just 6.2 cents. Or rather, it would be—except that people in Zaire, fed up with inflation, have taken the money supply into their own hands.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Popular monetarism”
From the April 5th 1997 edition
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