In recent years the long-time Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has presided over an economic disaster. Inflation has risen like a moon shot, to the point where wheelbarrows of currency are needed to buy staples of life. How has he managed to stay in power? Because “he is more clever and more ruthless than any other politician in Zimbabwe,” according to a cable from former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Christopher Dell.
But President Mugabe is hampered by several factors, including “his own ego and belief in his infallibility,” according to Ambassador Dell. The US official adds that the Zimbabwean leader has “deep ignorance on economic issues” – perhaps because he believes that “his 18 doctorates give him the authority to suspend the laws of economics, including supply and demand.”
