Zimbabwe enters the Twilight Zone

Things are getting worse - faster - in Zimbabwe as hyperinflation sucks the life out of the economy. Two weeks ago, all the civil workers in the country received a 300% pay raise which was immediately swallowed up by skyrocketing prices:

Pay increases have so utterly failed to keep pace with price increases that some Harare workers now complain that bus fare to and from work consumes their entire salaries.

After chasing away the white farmers, Zimbabwe is facing starvation, so the government is trying to help keep the tractors running:

Seeking to revive farm production, for example, the government sells gasoline to farmers at a bargain rate of 330 Zimbabwe dollars per liter - and farmers promptly resell it on the black market for 10 times that, leaving their fields idle.

Despite acceptable rains, one international aid official said, Zimbabwe’s corn crop is currently lagging behind last year’s - and that harvest was among the worst in history.

But have no fear. Robert Mugabe (who blames his countries problems on a "Western plot") has a unique approach to the hyperinflation ravaging his country. He simply made it illegal:

The central bank's latest response to these problems, announced this week, was to declare inflation illegal. From March 1 to June 30, anyone who raises prices or wages will be arrested and punished. Only a "firm social contract" to end corruption and restructure the economy will bring an end to the crisis, said the reserve bank governor, Gideon Gono.

Sounds like a plan.

The speech by Mr. Gono, a favorite of Mr. Mugabe, was broadcast nationally. In downtown Harare, the last half was blacked out by a power failure.

D'oh!