Zimbabwe moves yet closer to the brink

The bad news from the breadbasket turned basket case that is Zimbabwe continues - after Mugabe ordered shops to halve their prices, the inevitable panic shopping has hit. Clearly, if shops are forced to sell their goods at less than it costs to buy them from the manufacturers, they aren't going to restock. So now the shops are empty, they won't be refilled.

Mugabe's regime continues to blame everything on the British. Apparently, selling goods at a profit rather than a huge loss is "British tactics" and "dirty tricks". Mugabe's government has threatened to nationalise shops that won't obey them. The end result is that it will be only the state shops that are running officially, everyone else will use the black market - and if Mugabe's supporters run the state shops with the same efficiency they run their farms, that probably will mean everyone else will have to use the black market to survive.