The southern African country's inflation last month hit the quintillion percent mark, an indication that the country's economic woes are far from over. Professor Steve Hanke, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute in the United States of America, said Zimbabwe's annual inflation had soared to 2.79 quintillion percent, a world record in many respects. A quintillion is a figure with 18 zeroes and is a rung above a quadrillion. Professor Hanke developed the Hanke hyperinflationary index, a metric derived from market price data, which can be used to calculate inflation in the absence of information from the government's statistical bodies, as in the case of Zimbabwe. "Zimbabwe is the first country in the 21st century to hyper inflate," said Prof. Hanke, who has played a prominent role in designing and implementing monetary reforms that have reduced high attitude inflation in eight countries.

My response: This is what happens under Marxist rule, where there are little to no private property rights, rule of law, freedom, and incentive to be creative and produce services and products.