this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah look at what happened to Zimbabwe when they tried to print more money. The currency got devalued to the extreme, people's entire pensions could only buy a carton of eggs.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Usually countries only print a shit ton of money like the way Zimbabwe did when they are forced to because of internal instability or currency speculation attacks. Sri Lanka was forced to do the same last year when its forex reserves were almost completely depleted. They couldn't borrow dollars from IMF because IMF likes when global south suffers (easier to control when the country is weaker) and to pay for essential expenses, it was forced to print currency (without issuing any bonds).

If Global south countries want to attain greater currency sovereignty, they'll need to reduce import dependence and partially decouple from the capitalist markets.

There are other ways to do trade as well. USSR had a local currency settlement system with its allies like India where trade is done at fixed exchange rate set by a deal. This has some problems if trade balance is constantly skewed towards one side. However, as USSR had a giant economy, this wasn't much of a problem.