Zimbabwe has deep problems unrelated to money supply. If you build a successful business in Zimbabwe Mugabe's thugs will kill you and steal it (or allow you to escape the country with the clothes on your back, if you're lucky). In a culture where everyone has to either be a part of the gang that runs the place, or pay for the privilege of mere existence, business cannot grow. The incentives are simply wrong for business to exist. There is no incentive to work hard, build something new, take risks on new ideas, or provide a service (to anyone other than the thugs in charge). If you had no hope of becoming successful would you start a new business? Would you bother working every day to maintain an existing one? Everyone who has the capacity to build products, grow food, and provide knowledge services, has either fled the country or been killed or imprisoned by the government. Of course the economy of Zimbabwe is a shithole.

So, I don't have any answers to any of your other question. I'm by no means an expert on the subject. But the causes of the economic failure of Zimbabwe seems pretty obvious to me. And, the more the US looked like Zimbabwe, politically speaking, the more our economy would look like the economy of Zimbabwe. Luckily, we have a long way to fall to be in quite the same kind of mess as Zimbabwe. But, I do think a bailout without serious oversight and some accountability for the people that caused the problem, would be a big step in the wrong direction.