comparing/contrasting the Venezuelan/Zimbabwean economic situations with historical hyperinflation "episodes"

In checking around the "deep Web" a few days ago, I found yet another update on Zimbabwe's ongoing economic meltdown of just epic proportions:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33105400

...which mentions that the "Zimbabwean $", for (more than) what that's worth now, will be "phased out" in the foreseeable future, to be "replaced" by various currencies, like our $, the British £, the Euro, the Chinese/Japanese ¥, and other international currencies... Apparently, however, I've noticed in some places that they introduced these small-valued "centavos" (the Spanish word for "cents"/"coins") last year, effectively keeping their (worthless) $ going, albeit only in coin form, unlike practically all other currencies, regardless of whether or not they use coins and notes, or either or...

http://source.co.zw/2014/12/rbz-issues-centavo-coins-says-bringing-back-zimbabwe-dollar-suicidal/

...that being said, the numerous comparisons to other inflated/hyperinflated currencies of old, like Weimar Germany (1920s), most of Latin America, especially 1970s-90s Brazil, and their cruzeiro (the Portuguese word for "cross") (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boE_xlkBcJM&list=FLRgGN7E7EWySO2r7NcFtULQ&index=53 for an old supermarket commercial from back then that, I think, best explains that whole crisis), among others, have continued as a result of that still-breaking news...

http://www.cato.org/pubs/dpa/html/dpa6/dpa6index.html (a Cato Institute report on Zimbabwe's "growth" ever since they (supposedly) ditched their currency)

most "conspiracy theorist" types out there, though, think that somehow, as a result of what's ongoing in the rest of the world right now (North America, Europe, over here, and down in Australia/New Zealand) (mostly due to various government practices, yet these people keep voting in such radicalswith their votes, like Greece (the neo-Nazi "Golden Dawn", or the current far-left "ruling party" there, "Syriza", or Hungary (the also neo-Nazi "Fidesz") right now, for instance), there'll be some sort of "reset" of the world's currencies, and that, again, somehow, those places will soon experience similar situations, while those other places that have experienced/are experiencing such meltdowns will somehow be "prosperous" "soon"...

​...I don't know how long it's been since any of you last studied/taught/otherwise followed, if ever, any non-sports economics, or any (non-"spin zone") politics in general, but I'm sure you've continued to follow such situations ever since any new developments in whichever stories...

I like to think of stuff like this as an important "buffer" against all the "crazy talk" in the media (particularly the "fringe" "new media", where most of those "conspiracy theorists" tend to emerge, or, even, sadly, our "talk radio" landscape, promoting such fringe "ideas") about economics:

http://www.netrootsmass.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/images/20100428-4-Marshall-Auerback.pdf

...mind you, that report is from a left-leaning website, but at least it's not all "doom and gloom", like the just aforementioned groups...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boE_xlkBcJM (for an example of what I just referred to, RE: 1990's Brazil)

I know some of you most likely just called Robert Mugabe's actions in control of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe these past decades "criminal" after reading the above part of this post, but, for those of us who claim ancestry/heritage/etc. from any Latin American country, that Brazilian example, in terms of historical economic free falls, and the Venezuelan example, in current times, in spite of the sheer size of the inflation figures there, both pale in comparison to the fact that military governments were everywhere up and down and across the continent last century - no wonder so many of them/us are on other continents now - it's because of those governments stifling just about every semblance of life down there back then! I mean, at least in 1920s "Weimar" Germany, the government was at least trying to help its citizens, more or less, and just failing spectacularly at doing so, since the country was still paying off its WWI losses... Argentina, Brazil, Chile, the 2 "Guays", Peru, etc., etc., however - between the "disappearances" in (mostly) Argentina and Chile, and the (hyper)inflation in (mostly) Brazil and Peru, life was basically a "living ****" for them back then!

specifically, in Peru, where (most of) my family is originally from, the currency in use now has the same name as their second post-Spanish independence currency (the "sol", abbreviated "S/"), but, from about 1980 on through the rest of that decade, inflation kept creeping ever higher - 1979 and 1981 saw the introductions of S/10.000 and S/50.000 banknotes, in fact, indicating the mere beginning of the country's inflationary crisis, but there's a report here https://prezi.com/tt_9lv1dhytc/inflacion-en-el-peru-1980-1990/ that indicates, among other things:

"SOCIAL
Huelgas , desabastecimiento , violencia, especulación.
Micro empresas en colapso.
Barcos en los puertos se negaban a descargar los productos hasta que no se les pague.
Divisas se agotaron por el mal uso.
En 1883 el fenómeno de el Niño daño a la agricultura e infraestructura vial.
En la sierra la salida de los Señores de la tierra dejo a las sociedades rurales descabezadas socialmente, sin nadie que ocupara su lugar y reactivara la producción."

('social' (causes of the inflation): strikes, stock withdrawals/"selloffs", violence, speculation. Collapsed small businesses. Ships in ports not unloading their cargo/products until they were paid. The currency was only further harmed by misuse. (stuff about "el Niño" and other (historical) climate/weather phenomena, and their (historical) effects on the population)

"ECONÓMICO
Tazas de interés se elevaron en países acreedores, incrementando las cuotas de los países deudores.
Escasez de divisas .
Devaluación de la moneda.
El dolar de EE.UU ,se cotizaba en 12000 soles ---gobierno militar 200 soles."

('economic': interest rates were elevated in creditor nations, incrementing the quotas for their debtors. Scarcity of banknotes/currency. Devaluation. The U.S.$ settled at S/12.000 - for the military government itself, only S/200.)

"POLÍTICO
Situación crítica y compleja por efecto de las drásticas medidas , la reducción de ingresos, estatismo de la banca , incremento de la burocracia
POLÍTICO
Política caudillista , egocéntrica y extremado centralismo en la política
ECONÓMICO
la protección a la industria nacional fue incrementada con altos ancéles, controles de importaciones y prohibiciones
Inflación dejada por Belaúnde (100%) trato de ser combatida de manera heterodoxa , con controles de precios, devaluaciones selectivas y congelamiento del tipo oficial de cambio
Llego a existir mas de media docena de tipo de cambio, según el uso que se les dieran a las divisas
estas parecían medidas intervencionistas permisibles.
El sol fue reemplazado por el inti (100 soles = 1 inti).
Reducción de la inflación a un 60%.
Salarios reales aumentaron.
La política del control de precios y congelamiento de tipo de cambios se prolongó, mas allá de lo recomendable.
Perù dejo de ser sujeto de crédito internacional para importantes agencias de cooperación como:
Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo, Banco Mundial.
Agotamiento de las reservas del Perú.
Deuda externa aprox. Veinte mil millones de dolares.
Remuneraciones y consumo percápita por debajo del 50 %.
La producción agrícola nacional cayó ostensiblemente y la importación de productos aumentó un 49 %."

('political' 1: A complex/critical situation was created by effect of the drastic measures taken (by the military government). Wage reductions; banking 'statism', the incrementation of the 'bureaucracy')

(2: Caustic, egocentric, and incredibly centralized governance)

(more 'economic' causes: Protections for national industries were steadily removed through import controls and prohibitions. Inflation under (Fernando) Belaúnde (Terry, a top post-military 'junta' leader/President in the early 1980s) reached 100%+, and was attempted to be combatted in an "unorthodox" manner, with price controls, selective devaluations, and freezes on the official currency rates. There came to be over a half dozen types of official currency types, according to its overall use; as a result, the sol was replaced by the inti (I/) (in 1985), and inflation was thus reduced to about 60%. (Real) Salaries were increased. The policies of price controls and currency "freezes" were prolonged, beyond (most) recommendations. Peru was no longer subjected to the will of international creditors for important cooperation 'agencies' such as: the InterAmerican Development Bank; the World Bank; among others; resource reserves also increased. External debts numbered almost $20B. Remunerations and per-capita consumption fell below 50%. Agricultural production decreased by tons, and product imports increased 49%.)

"SOCIAL
El nivel del subempleo ascendió a un desastroso 73 % al término del gobierno aprista.
El número de horas perdidas por conflictos laborales con el gobierno,aumentó de 6 millones en 1985 a 124 millones en 1990.
El Grupo Andino redujo la inversión en el Perú
Inflación de 2,178.482 % considerada una hiper inflación y la mas alta a lo largo de la historia peruana y mundial."

(more 'social': Underemployment grew to a disastrous 73% at the end of the APRA (basically, the radical, leftist, version, back then, of what Venezuela is "living through", or perhaps "scraping by" would be a better term...) government. The # of hours lost due to labor conflicts with the government grew from 6M in 1985 to 124M in 1990. The Andean Group reduced its investments in the country, and inflation reached 2,178.842%, considered hyperinflation, and the largest in all of Peruvian and world history (back then, obviously, since the other situations have all rocketed past that % since then...)

There's more at the bottom about the consequences of all that stuff over in Brazil, but I already showed you an example of that meltdown, didn't I?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGXlYNOUtK0 (for another example from 1990's Brazil)

an exposé on a famous (classical) jazz album

Throughout the course of history, most music genres have been seen as more “brash” and/or “overpowering”, not necessarily always allowing people to “think” about what message is being sent by some song(s). Jazz, however, seems to have avoided the “stereotyping” that most other genres have received, due to (generally) not containing many, if any, lyrics, and just letting the music stand on its own. One such album that almost perfectly captures the “thought-provoking”-type sound that most jazz has given us over the years was a 1959 album by trumpeter Miles Davis titled Kind of Blue, which had apparently been in the works for years (behind the scenes) prior to its eventual release to radio stations nationwide. It was recorded with many different contemporary jazz musicians, allowing many different styles to be heard by listeners who perhaps might have been looking for something with some “variety” in some album of that type. Despite its “depression”-type name, the album was almost entirely filled with more “upbeat” instrumental backings, hinting at a relatively easy process for the performers, and an almost “triumphant” lead out of the 1950s, wherein the only major world event was the Korean War, and into the civil rights’ movement of the 1960s, of which Davis would end up being a major proponent, mostly through his music, although also through his activism.

(SIDE NOTE: this happened right before recording started on what would later become Kind of Blue, and sort of “set the tone” for the rest of the civil rights movement, while also simultaneously infuriating the jazz community)

In August 1959, Davis and his world-famous “quintet” (separate from his recording group) were performing for the military inside the Birdland nightclub in midtown Manhattan. As he was leaving the nightclub after the performance, he was reportedly told by a few NYPD officers to “move on” while escorting a blonde woman across the street from the nightclub. After Davis tried to get out of the argument by telling the officer that he was a worker there, the officers chased the woman away from the scene, and arrested Davis for 3^rd-degree assault. As a result of the arrest, Davis was suspended from performances at all N.Y.C. jazz clubs until further notice, and was forced to plea bargain his way out of an N.Y.C. prison to get back to being able to perform in the City once again after those few weeks/months on suspension. Davis soon accused the officers to the Baltimore Afro-American of setting a “double standard”, in so many words, for themselves, and then for everybody else:

“It’s ridiculous to think I grabbed his nightstick. You can’t just take a gun or nightstick away from a policeman. If I had ever taken his nightstick from him, I wouldn’t look like this (points to bandaged forehead).” Davis complained in his autobiography that the aftermath of the arrest and trial/acquittal had “changed my whole life and whole attitude again, made me feel bitter and cynical again when I was starting to feel good about the things that had changed in this country.”, and, for the most part, the African-American and jazz communities agreed that, since the civil rights’ movement was roughly halfway between Rosa Parks’ famous “bus seat refusal” in Montgomery, Alabama, and the desegregation of public schools/Little Rock, Arkansas National Guard intervention/passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they were in need of a more “upbeat” album/set of tunes to get them through ordeal after ordeal they faced back then.

For most musicians/band members recording an album along the lines of Kind of Blue, such would most likely be considered the most upbeat of their solos/albums. For Davis, however, the opposite appeared to be true: his previous solos/albums were more upbeat than Kind of Blue, owing to their styles in and of themselves, according to saxophonist John Coltrane in a 1958 interview during the production process for the album…:

“On returning… I found Miles in the midst of his musical development. There was one time in his past that he devoted to multi-chorded structures. He was interested in chords for their own sake. But, now, it seemed that he was moving in the opposite direction to the use of fewer and fewer chord changes in his songs…”

…and by Davis himself, in a different 1958 interview with Nat Hentoff, then running his own magazine, The Jazz Review:

“When you’re based on chords, you know at the end of 32 bars that they have run out and there’s nothing to do but repeat what you’ve just done – with variations. I think a movement in jazz is beginning away from the conventional string of chords… There will be fewer chords, but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them. Classical composers – some of them – have been writing this way for years, but jazz musicians seldom have (up until then).”

Davis’ comments signaled that he would continue the style started only about a year earlier, in one of his 1958 singles, “Milestones”, which had more of a “modal” style, instead of the more upbeat tone of “bebop”/”hard bop” of his previous singles/albums, prior to 1958: not quite as “mellow” as “cool jazz”, yet definitely more designed for “outings”, with its overall faster pace than “modal” jazz. “Bebop”, in its time, was routinely described as such things as “memorable”/”planned”/”short” (Michael Cuscuna, jazz producer), and also as an “anagram of blues and gospel” and “vigorously creative” (David H. Rosenthal, in his jazz “exposé”, Hard Bop). On the other hand, Dirk Sutro, in Jazz for Dummies (another installment of the “intro series” to (insert topic here) that has become popular with people learning about topics), described “modal” jazz as (more qualitative traits 1^st, then more quantitative traits):

-       typically CDEFGAB, with “C” starting everything off

-       B♭ appearing less often than those notes

-       C “Ionian” being the dominant note above all others

-       C/F/G/A/D/E all being present on the “pentatonic scale”

-       Slow-moving, yet not quite as slow as “cool jazz”

-       More “harmonic” than any other jazz styles

-       More “melody” than “progression”/”transition”

-       More use of bass pedals, multiple keys being played at once (“polytonality”), and “droning” sounds, where the same note gets extended longer than usual

To that end, the album’s 1^st track, “So What”, started off with every “D” note (known as “Dorian mode”), transitioning to E♭ “Dorian”, and then back to “D” “Dorian” – overall, in the same structure used mostly in rock music, but also, perhaps most famously, in a certain tune from the Wizard of Oz “soundtrack”. Continuing on, “Freddie Freeloader”, featuring the fast-paced piano work of Wynton Kelly, was mostly B♭, and progressed into A♭7 near its end, instead of the more typical B♭7. “All Blues”, the 4^th track, owing to its name, was played in 6/4 time, exclusively featuring 7^th chords, and an E♭7 in a “G” key, with a “vamp” noise reverberating from the bass throughout the tune. Last but not least, “Flamenco Sketches” technically has no melody, yet pianist Bill Evans is usually credited with giving the tune its 4-bar Cmajor7/G9suspended4 form, with “C”, “A♭”, “B♭”, and “G” notes being played throughout the tune. Overall, the album almost perfectly encapsulated what Davis and the rest of his “crew” wanted from the album: a slower pace than any of the performers’ previous works, particularly any of Davis’ works, since he was the almost undisputed leader of the recording group, despite not having his quintet to support him at too many points in the recording process.

            Davis himself noted the significance of Kind of Blue in a 1986 interview with jazz pianist-turned-NPR host Ben Sidran, on his show, “Sidran on Record”:

"’So What" or Kind of Blue, they were done in that era, the right hour, the right day, and it happened. It's over [...]. What I used to play with Bill Evans, all those different modes, and substitute chords, we had the energy then and we liked it. But I have no feel for it anymore—it's more like warmed-over turkey.”

Davis might have dismissed his own work, but others certainly didn’t, as evidenced by the rankings for the album over the years:

-       1977: Billboard Jazz #37

-       1987: Billboard Top Jazz #10

-       1994: Colin Larkin, author of Top 1000 Jazz Albums: #1

-       2001: Billboard Top Internet #14

-       2002: Library of Congress – 1 of 50 “culturally significant” recordings selected for historical preservation that year

-       2003: Rolling Stone “500 Greatest Albums” list - #12

-       12/16/09: U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously (409-0) to “affirm” the album as a “cultural national treasure”

-       gold in Belgium

-       platinum in Australia/Italy/the U.K.

-       quadruple platinum over here in the U.S.

…why not let an 8/1/01 article from NPR’s “Jazz Profiles” finish this?

“Musicians from all genres perform, record and study the album's songs, and the influence of the songs on culture beyond music continues to grow. Drummer (Jimmy) Cobb says it all comes down to simplicity — the reason Kind of Blue has remained so successful for so long, and because of its inherent balance, historian Dan Morgenstern adds, the album never wears out its welcome.”