WARNING: Collapse of U.S. Dollar
Could Wipe Out Half of Your Wealth!
Hyperinflation is not as rare as governments would like you to believe. Whenever a government spends far more than it takes in, the risk of Hyperinflation is there. It wipes out the value of accumulated savings, leaving even affluent people penniless.
2008, Zimbabwe: The socialist dictatorship of Robert Mugabe has created an annual inflation
rate of 11,250,000%, resulting in currency that is basically worthless. At independence in 1980, 1 Zimbabwean dollar was worth approximately $1.25 in U.S. dollars. By mid-2008, one U.S. dollar was worth 688 trillion pre-August 2006 Zimbabwean dollars.
2007, Turkey: Turkey has suffered from chronic inflation for decades. In 1980, one U.S. dollar was worth 90 Turkish lira. By 2004, a U.S. dollar was worth 1.3 million Turkish lira. As a result, in 2007 the government simply declared a revaluation of the Turkish lira. One million Turkish lira would henceforth be worth only 1 lira.
2005, Romania: In 1998, the highest denomination in Romania was 100,000 lei. By 2005, it was 1 million lei. The Romanian government then devalued its currency, declaring that 1 new leu would be worth 10,000 old lei.
2001, Argentina: Overspending by the Argentine government resulted in massive inflation in the 1980s and 90s. By 1992, one new peso was worth 100 billion pre-1983 pesos. (Had you stuffed cash in your mattress during one of Argentina’s many recessions, not trusting their shaky banks, you would have ended up with nothing.)
1994, Russia: Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the new Russia saw annual inflation of between 2,500% and 8,500% a year. The value of the ruble declined from 40 rubles to the dollar in 1991 to 30,000 rubles to the dollar by 1999.