Camlon, Austrian economics is not “conservative.” What really separates Austrian economics from other neo-classical economics is the way the subject is studied. Check out some works under Methodology in the Literature section if you want to know what I’m talking about. Austrians don’t accept/use stuff like perfect competition or imperfect competition. You can read Austrian analysis and critrique of such here (read the 10th chapter, “Monopoloy and Competition,” and in particular section 5, “The Theory of Monopolistic or Imperfect Competition”)
He actually didn’t choose it. It were some of his supporters that did do so. He just chose not to oppose them invading the farms of White people in Zimbabwe. Nevertheless he may have political reasons for his choices. Actually he got more pressure from the opposition MDC. The MDC was mainly driven by middle class Black Zimbabweans. However they did get their financial supports from wealthy White Zimbabweans. Mugabe had a choice to either crush on these middle class Blacks or dry them out financially. He chose to dry out the MDC financially by allowing the White farms to be invaded. That this ruined Zimbabwes economy is of course another matter.
Mugabe may not know how to manage an agricultural economy correctly. But he certainly knows how political power works and how to stay in office.
It has been a while. Actually I have been to Zimbabwe during October to explore opportunities in Mining (Chrome, Diamonds, Gold, Platinum group metals). One pays amounts between Z$ 10.000 to 1.000.000 for daily expensives. Rands and US Dollars are accepted and used as well. The prices on menues of Restaurants go up daily. Many shops are empty and many goods are traded on the Black market. Zimbabweans can only draw Z$50.000 per day from their bank accounts in cash and business is mainly conducted with cheques.