// rich in the ground, broke in the wallet

The country was rich. The currency was not.

Documented case files of currencies broken by commodity dependence and kleptocratic rule — the oil, copper, and diamond economies whose money collapsed when the export boom, or the government, did. Each traced from the boom to the redenomination, the dollarization, or the devaluation on the record.

15 resource-state collapses Updated Jun 10, 2026
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