Zimbabwe on the Verge Of Collapse

This morning, I received another BBC newsupdate that the economic situation in Zimbabwe is dire (clickk the title link for the full text of the article).

According to the article:

Speaking to a UK newspaper, Christopher Dell predicted that inflation will leap to 1.5m% by the end of the year.

He said political discontent at Mr Mugabe's "disastrous economic policies" meant Zimbabwe was "committing regime change upon itself".

Zimbabwe has 80% unemployment and independent economists say inflation is running at 11,000% per year.

On Thursday, the value of the Zimbabwean dollar plummeted with black market exchange rates reaching 300,000 Zimbabwean dollars to one US dollar. The official rate is 15,000 to one.

I am personally wondering how the hell did this happen? I am a huge slacker when it comes to paying attention in my math and economics courses, but I need to go research this.

I - and I would presume most other Americans - happen to be woefully ignorant about the rise and fall of nations, and how actions like these impact the overall economic outlook of entire continents.

When I learn more, I'll post here. In the meantime, keep watching out for updates.