Hyperinflation

Greg Mankiw's blog points to this NY Times article on the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe. As always, the culprit is very rapid money growth, money is currently growing at over 1000% per year. As far as causes go, this analysis probably gets things backwards

Hyperinflation has bankrupted the government, left 8 in 10 citizens destitute and decimated the country’s factories and farms.

Bankrupt governments often turn to rapid money creation to generate government revenue. This was true for the German hyperinflation in the 1920s, the Russian hyperinflation in the 1990s, many others as well, and is likely true for Zimbabwe.