The president said he would try to pay the country's international debts, ease restrictions on imports, and make it easier for Zimbabweans to get hard currency.
It has encouraged America and other countries to take over part of Ukraine's allocation of special drawing rights at the fund, in effect channelling hard currency to the government in Kyiv.
Those with hard currency also instantly became relatively richer after the 2009 currency experiments, which had the effect of severely devaluing the North Korean won.
Hard currency would stay scarce, according to this view, which in turn justified steering investment towards industries that replaced foreign goods, rather than those that served foreign markets.
Chains like Wendy's, Burger King, KFC and McDonald's are fighting to best one another in value menus to convince consumers to spend their hard-earned cash.