When Money Dies - the history of Weimar hyperinflation (.pdf download)

Niccolo and Donkey Thursday 3 Feb 2011

This seminal book from 1975 by Adam Fergusson is increasing in popularity after decades of being out of print.

source :

When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nation’s currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany’s finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake.

Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, “quantitative easing,” that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country’s deficit—necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure—it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.

I've attached the .pdf version of the entire book below. Please download, read, and comment on this thread.

Niccolo and Donkey Sunday 18 Sep 2011

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Download the book.

Broseph Monday 19 Sep 2011

It's not working for me.

Niccolo and Donkey Thursday 22 Sep 2011

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Try it now.

Niccolo and Donkey Sunday 30 Oct 2011

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Download this.

supplanter Tuesday 1 Nov 2011

I have tried reading this a few times and have fallen asleep after the first few pages. Does the author explain how Germany's currency was worthless, yet the nazis were able to build airships and tanks?

When Money Dies - the history of Weimar hyperinflation (.pdf download)

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