Former Mad Money Printing Central Banker May Become Zimbabwe's Next President

Gideon Gono'

"The latest information as it stands now is that the leadership is reaching a compromise candidate that is seemingly acceptable to all and who is sellable to the international community. We have learnt that Former (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) Governor Gideon Gono's name has been touted as one of the people that might be given the task to take over the reins of power," reported Bulawayo 24, quoting an unnamed senior Zanu-PF official.

I once reported on Gono's memoir, Zimababwe's Casino Economy:

 It is meeting my expectations...He has an undergraduate correspondence degree from Rapid Results College...

Gono informs in the book, that toward the end of his reign as head of the central bank, inflation hit 231 million percent annually. He writes:

I began to ask myself: "With Zimbabwe inflation having soared to 231 million percent and that of  the U.S, standing at a mere 2.6%, does it mean in general that USA residents are psychologically and materially happier, better off and more secure than most Zimbabweans? 

As for critics who have charged that he was too close to Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe. Gono defends himself this way:

Anyone who has read  Alan Greenspan's The Age of Turbulence would know how close Greenspan was to a succession of American President's particularly, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W.H. Bush, Bill Clinton and [...] George W. Bush. Perhaps even more telling from reading the book is the closeness that Greenspan had with leading politicians in the Republican Party in the United States before, during and after serving as Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

 Wilbert Mukori wrote this week in Bulawayo 24:

Gideon Gono, "untainted"! Here is the man behind the crazy idea of printing money to solving the country's economic problems. He fuelled inflation to the world record level of 500 billion per cent forcing the country to scrap the Z$. But the very fact that the regime is turning to Gono underlines just how desperate, desperate the party is for someone competent to drag the nation out of this economic hell-hole the regime land us in.  

Even if one was to accept that Gono has learnt his lesson and will never repeat the same or similar foolish mistake of printing money. Gono will probably have a lot more functional brain cells, giving him an IQ just a few points above that of an idiot, than Mnangagwa. Still, I can say here and now that Gono will NOT revive Zimbabwe's economic. No chance! Never! 

-RW