Oh, this happened before, in communist Soviet Union, only the "green"
rouble used to be called the "gold" rouble. You could exchange your
dollars for it, then buy stuff at special stores. You could convert it back into
dollars. Of course, you could not convert "pink" roubles in dollars at the
"official" rate, or anywhere, for that matter - owning dollars was a crime. In
1990 1 dollar was officially worth 6 roubles (the "green", or "gold" rouble
bought that), but you could buy it for 36 pink roubles on the black market.
We all know what happened then -- $1 is now worth 300,000 roubles,
taking added zeroes into account -g-
I think the final outcome of this mess might be quite ironic - a move in America towards socialism, of Western European type. Higher taxes and
more social programs. So, the cold war is won, but who won it, if America becomes more "socialist", and Eastern Europe more capitalist. Sort of a trend in the world to some sort of ideal system - somewhere in between capitalism and communism. |
