Mugabe then encouraged the violent seizure of thousands of flourishing, white-owned industrial farms. The government handed a lot of those farms to political allies who knew little about farming, and production plummeted.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in a 2016 study of the Zimbabwean economy that the production of tobacco, Zimbabwe's major cash crop, dropped by 64 percent between 2000 and 2008. That was followed by drought and profligate government spending. Zimbabwe's economy collapsed.
The symbol of runaway inflation became the $100 trillion note, printed in early 2009.
But Mugabe stayed in power, even after he lost the first round of a 2008 election. He used violence to muzzle the opposition and rewarded his inner circle with plum jobs that led to riches.
via www.npr.org
That darn Mugabe.