Zimbabwe's staggering inflation has turned bakers into criminals (aka economic actors):
“A TOTAL OF 282 bakeries have been arrested for selling bread above the controlled price,” state radio reported on Friday... So I went to another bakery where the Greek owner conceals loaves in brown paper bags under the counter, and glances shiftily around the shop before he hands it over to you, as if it’s a parcel of mbanje (marijuana).
Jan Raath, of the Times Online, reports that everything is illegal in Harare.
Update: Commentary on the government's contention that economic sanctions are to blame, from a Zimbabwe Independent columnist. At the recent annual congress of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce, "to a major extent the impression given to the private sector is that
the government pretends at consultation so that, if and when things go
wrong, it can disclaim culpability, and can attribute the fault to the
private sector."
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