There is really no painless way to get out of high inflation episodes, let alone hyperinflation. In fact, I think the biggest issue about shock therapy-types of episodes is not the harsh measures taken to get the money supply under control but the rest of them.
I think Brazil, Israel and may be Argentina (although that one was only temporary) all managed to make it happen under democratic rule and without too much unrest. It was still harsh too.

That’s the reason why I have doubts about MDC. Months ago I read parts of their manifesto (as i was trying to figure out what kind of equilibrium their capital/worker alliance reached) and nowhere there were real recognition of the harshness of the measures that will have to undertaken just to get the money supply under control. Or rather it was recongized but they used the magic asterisk of potential “international support” that of course only they can bring to finance severance packages for laid-off civil servants and other measures for other loosers in the stabilization effort.

I fear that they may quite quickly get into “if only we got help” type of excuse similar to the Landcaster broken promise thing ZANU-PF uses.

(I hope I didn’t make too many typos this time)

So, to control inflation, the new Government will need to rein in spending. But, stopping spending will disappoint many people, among both the MDC and ZANU-PF. Can the new Government manage these disappointments without provoking civil unrest, or will it too, succumb to the temptation to make targeted payments to buy support?

The only policy prescriptions I know for this situation are those of the shock-therapy brigade (starting with Jeffrey Sachs in Latin America, and then in the former Comecon nations). But such policies are extremely harsh in their social impacts, and usually require military or police force to contain social unrest. Where is the development economics with a human face?

http://www.examiner.com/a-1584174~Michigan_State_revokes_Mugabe_s_honorary_degree.html