But the fact is – it is the real market.
It is made up of rational, economic men and women who have woken up to the reality that in the face of United States dollars scarcity, the notion that bond notes have the same value as United States dollars, by decree or any other means is not only ridiculous, but a giant fraud!
Let us be honest. Let us face it.
Even Mangudya would not give you $5 000 United States dollars cash from his personal hoard in exchange for 5 000 bond notes.
We can challenge him and put him to the test.
Those ministers of government would not do it either.
Take your bond notes or RTGS and challenge anyone shouting the one is to one mantra and challenge them to give you United States dollars cash in exchange and see if they will.
The reason they won’t do it is because they are economic men, and as such are not stupid.
In short, to echo Adam Smith: “As every individual, therefore, endeavours as much as he can both to employ his capital in the support of domestic industry, and so to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest value.”
The rational man thus seeks the greatest value from his capital.
In short, it would be stupid to give away my $100 for 100 Zimbabwe dollars when John wants to pay me 140 Zimbabwe dollars for it, and while Peter is offering 150 Zimbabwe dollars for the same.
As a rational person, I will have to take the highest offer for my US$100.
This is the basis for the pricing that we see real market – what officials want to call parallel market.
As a matter of fact, it’s just a normal market which gets a bad label from our politicians, who are mere economic men pursuing their political self-interest.
To be clear, Zimbabwe no longer uses the United States dollar as currency.
We now have a hotch-potch of digital bank balances, bond notes and bond coins.
I also argued that, “Robert Mugabe is the only President with the unique distinction of battering two different currencies in his lifetime and within a space of fifteen years. He did not just ruin the Zimbabwe dollar, but also tore apart the United States dollar as we knew it 2009 to 2013.”
Continued next page
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