@ cde monomotapa..so Zim ditched their Dollar to the USD? That was a very wise move of the Zim central banker hence the 9.4% GDP.

USD use is a medium term strategy to stablize the economy but I am personally not comfortable with its use beyond that. There are calls to re-introduce local currency and the Yuan is gaining traction there-that helps me sleep better at night.

Speaking Freely Volume 2: Susan George

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_viNHVzadeM

Well put,couldn't agree more. Money is just a medium of exchange beyond which it serves no purpose. It is the mortar and brick of economies that matters.

A good article on the concept of the USD vs Gold

http://www.a4architect.c...dollar-as-good-as-gold/

To accomplish this reform, the United States can lead, first, by announcing future convertibility, on a date certain, of the U.S. dollar, to be defined in statute as a weight unit of gold, as the Constitution suggests; second, by convening a new Bretton Woods conference to establish mutual gold convertibility of the currencies of the major powers.

A dollar as good as gold is the way out. It is the way to restore real American savings and competitiveness. It is the way to restore economic growth and full employment without inflation. It is the way to restore America’s financial self-respect, and to regain its needful role as the legitimate and beneficent leader of the world.

Lewis E. Lehrman is chairman of the Lehrman Institute.

watch the video above..at some point she says that the more subsaharan africa produces cash crops for export, the poorer it gets..

http://youtu.be/_viNHVzadeM

Are you people serious about what you're writing? If you're then I am sorry because clasic economics are long gone, Gold standards? You guys pay too much attention to conspiracies.

Now you want United States to implement Gold standards? What kind of BS is that? IMF/WB do help Africa secure loans otherwise who would loan us money, our debt are all rated junk! When it get too bad we run to IMF or World Bank since no one is willing to loan us money; if you have problems with the terms of these loans then take it to the government because they screwed thats why they had to take these bad loans to pay for your medicine! You cannot defend corrupt governments and rant at world bank.

I watch Gadaffi give a speech in United Nations a few years ago and it was embarrasing. Please have independent minds do not read things and take it just like that, analyze it and come up with your own conclusions. The fact of the matter is Africa is screwed by African but we want to blame everyone else but us!

@Murchr,
I see you chose only a small section to answer and you refered me to a youtube, don't you know that I can find a youtube post that says drunkard is the best economist. Sorry I am not an economist, but with the knowledge I have I seem to have a hard time finding a difference between IMF/WB loans and Chinease loans other than IMF/WB loans are attached with conditions of mainly good accountability and Chinease loans are attached with nothing close to accountability but everything to do with Chinease economic interest. Mr Murchr, give me the difference between the two source of funding maybe this will be a learning opportunity for me. I am not saying IMF/WB came from God but when your Bonds are rated Junk you have no say in international debt markets. You take what you're given!

The problem with people like you mr Murchr is you seem to either ignore or not understand the implication of Sovereign risk and the link between the risk and overall performance of the economy. The problem with countries like Kenya is not lack of resources or human capital, it is inability for the government and the stakeholders to pursue a course that imporove these kinds of risk. kenya for instance is rated C C C this rating indicated a questionable capacity and commitments to honor obligations, patchy payment records. To eleborate the significant of this is that if Kenya develop ICT center in Konza city and Apple computers want to open a center in Africa the first question that pops out is, what is the rating of Kenya? and the second question will be is there any other country with similar return profile but better risk profile? And someone will be like Tanzania has a B!

How does our future look like? Oooh! yea people think the likes of Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto should be president! People suspected for unimaginables; these is not going to help our situation as a country, so we can continue ranting about IMF/WB and the west, but the fact of the matter is, it is us!

Clearly you did not even bother to watch the clip because you mention nothing about it. Anyway, let me ask.
1. When a govt borrows, on whose behalf does it borrowing the money for? Is it the WB or its citizens? If its his citizens, then don't you think they should be the ones holding the govt accountable? Shouldn't the interests of the WB be recovering their money back or is it free or without interest?

2. It is well documented that Africa was asleep before the chinese invasion. So if a country can grow at 11% with the help/interaction with the chinese, who needs the WB?

3. My friend, businesses do not only look at ratings when they decide to get into business in a particular country, what comes in mind is the opportunity, ever heard of the story of the 2 white men who went into a country to do a research on shoes? 1 went back and said, "those people dont wear shoes so there will be no market", and the other went back and said "they don't wear shoes there.....just fathom the opportunity" of the two who was wiser?

I dont know how Uhuruto came into this argument but, let me give you my 2cents.....All these politicians are the same, All of them, what matters to them is interests and not your interests but theirs, so my friend, be it uhuruto or whoever, things shall be the same. Again, thats just my 2cents.

I disagree with you totally, all politicians are not same.
Moi was not same as Kenyatta, Kibaki ain't same as Moi.

Politicians have interests of their own,true, but it is what they desire to do for the country which is different.