The Bond Notes: The Confusion & The Bloodbath

I have been following the story of Bond Notes introduction in Zimbabwe with keen interest. The different schools of thought are divided and the man on the street is now confused mostly resorting to settling for what they know, “the Bearer Cheque” experience and lessons. For a few people they are able to make sense of what is happening while for the majority they just assumed it is Zimbabwean dollar or paper so it is bound to cause chaos, pain and suffering. But where is the truth, where is the sound economic debates about the Bond Notes? I wish we could simply open up textbooks about monetary policy and find an answer, throw in a “ceteris paribus” maxim and solve the problem. But my love for economics has also opened my eyes to its biggest shortcoming, “ceteris paribus” will never happen in the real world. It helps understand things one moment in time but once the seconds tick on economies everything changes and you are observing too many moving targets you can only guess which one is the cause and effect. Even if you are very wrong, you can always be right because there is no wrong answer in economic debates, only the future can provide some pointers of what the past has been. I’ve read pieces by people like Edmund Kudzayi (of the Baba Jukwa fame), he believes the bond notes will do no harm to the economy, Sharon Bwanya an astute legal person sees the holes in Edmund’s discourse. Thomas Masiya of the Maison De La Marsia stands by Edmund, Obert Mundevere Ncube thinks that Edmund had a damascene moment ever since his troubles with the Zimbabwean authorities so he no longer sees or hear evil. I have decided to jump into the Bond Notes debate, I hope I can come out alive and able to defend my thoughts so here goes.