Synopses & Reviews
When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nationandrsquo;s currency depreciates beyond recovery.and#160;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.and#160;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.and#160;Germanyandrsquo;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.and#160;However, andldquo;quantitative easing,andrdquo; that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline.and#160;Whatever the reason for a countryandrsquo;s deficitandmdash;necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditureandmdash;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.and#160;What if it does not?and#160;Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.
Review
Daily Express (London)
andldquo;Engrossing and sobering.andrdquo;
Allen Mattich, Wall Street Journal, October 1, 2010
andldquo;One of the most blood chilling economics books Iandrsquo;ve ever read.andrdquo;
Wall Street Journal, January 30, 2011
andldquo;Every body ought to read this book. But baby boomers must.andrdquo;
The Guardian
andrdquo;a brilliant account of how Germany's Weimar Republic was consumed by hyperinflation.andrdquo;