Though written in the 1970's, about an historical era almost exactly a century ago, on another continent, it makes fascinating, and somewhat disturbing, reading.
There is a nice mixture of history, both political and economic, along with personal anecdotes and observations by people who were living through the events. Visiting British diplomats and businessmen could observe the inflation unfold and speculate on its causes and course, while the travails of ordinary bourgeois Germans, recorded in diaries at the time, or recalled later, show particular experiences that make the calamity personal and real.
The book's weaknesses, for a modern American reader, are several, though none severe. There is a constant use of older British monetary units (pounds, shillings, etc.) and the "long scale" of naming large numbers (so instead of billion we read millard, and rather than trillion, we read billion, etc.). This can slow down a reader if he insists on understanding exactly how large the amounts of currency, or small the purchasing power, at any moment.
In addition, there is a slight disconnection from the central players, bankers and politicians, who were at least nominally responsible for the inflation. We'd like, on occasion, to learn more of their backgrounds and thinking, to account for the stupidity of the whole thing. A few historical characters end up as "cardboard cut-outs" - where there must have been more to their decision-making than is apparent. Though maybe not. The whole thing appears to have been incredibly stupid (though many of the participants were highly intelligent, and usually degreed). The rank stupidity of it was apparent to contemporaneous observers, though none had the power to influence events. Hitler lurks in the background as well, cropping up repeatedly to take advantage of events. There are plenty of histories of his and the Nazis' early rise for those who want to see more of that part of the story - and he was not an instigator of the inflation but one of many radical opportunists attempting to take advantage.
The larger geopolitical situation is adequately covered, including the situation in neighboring Central Power defeated nations, and in Britain and particularly France, the victors of a Great War that had no true winners. For its length, the historical background seems good to excellent, with the exception of a few German leaders being left rather opaque. One relatively short book cannot cover every aspect of an event so intimately tied to all the other events of such a chaotic and consequential era.
But mainly, this is a riveting story - as an accelerating economic, political and human disaster unfolds, relentlessly, and apparently beyond the power and insight of any responsible party to halt. Its resolution is not so well covered, though we learn a lot. How could it be, really, with the social disasters awaiting Germany and the world as economics and politics played out over the following decades.
And the disturbing part? In the era of Corona virus, we see nations, not least the United States, attempting to recover from an economic disaster (an economy wrecked not by war but by policy over-reaction to an epidemic) through monetary means. The supposed sophistication of our modern bankers, revealed as illusionary by repeated recent miscalculations (the "housing bubble" mortgage melt-down the most prominent recent one), is no guarantee of safety. Indeed, misplaced confidence in the wise men only encourages carelessness. The US dollar is the world's reserve currency - we can get away with essentially unlimited unfunded spending of "printed" money (the computer and digital account entries are the modern version of the printing press) - or so we are told.
But, what have we really learned from the computerized era of finance? That what took hours, days, weeks, or months in the days of paper transactions can occur in seconds today. We have seen it repeatedly in market panics, triggered by some often minor event, magnified by automated trading programs. The same desire by politicians to provide benefits without exacting taxes to pay for them, and of bankers to accommodate the politicians, which was behind the Wiemar hyper-inflation, is alive and well today - with frankly a lower quality of political talent.
Human nature has not changed, though the means available to us has - our current tools are more efficient, and hence more dangerous. When reading "When Money Dies", it is impossible not to think of the trillions in Corona virus fiscal support, while the virus, and the insanity of race riots and nihilistic anarchy paralyze our cities, and an election looms where politicians hope to dupe the American people into giving them the power to magnify the current cultural, political and economic chaos many times. How far away are we, after all, from making the mistakes of post Great War Germany? How much can our current financial position in the world economy shield us from the consequences, and how much faster will those consequences unfold, given our pivotal world economic position and the speed of modern financial transactions, should the dam break?
Money could die in a day, not over the course of years.
It will make a hell of a story if anyone survives to tell it.
Meanwhile, read "When Money Dies", and enjoy the misery of others experiencing the cruelty of history, enhanced by the existential unease of suspecting that something similar in origin, if not in outcome, could occur again. And this time, history could happen to us.
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This is, I believe, a moral tale. It goes far to prove the revolutionary axiom that if you wish to destroy a nation you must first corrupt its currency. Thus must sound money be the first bastion of a society’s defence.Highlighted by 702 Kindle readers- Undoubtedly, though, inflation aggravated every evil, ruined every chance of national revival or individual success, and eventually produced precisely the conditions in which extremists of Right and Left could raise the mob against the State, set class against class, race against race, family against family, husband against wife, trade against trade, town against country.Highlighted by 489 Kindle readers
- Inflation is the ally of political extremism, the antithesis of order.Highlighted by 405 Kindle readers
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A must read
Deficit spending, an unfunded war, a strong military-industrial complex, a central bank calling the shots, a series of weak leaders, a struggling middle class, the printing of vast sums of currency (QE), and profiteering industrialists - No, I'm not describing our current situation, although you would be wise to note the similarity and not ignore it. These were the major contributors to what became known as the post WWI years of German Hyper-inflation. After finishing this book I found it alarming that we haven't learned from mistakes made in the past. Could it get that severe here in the USA? I doubt it...but things are heading in an unstable direction.Every student of economics should read this informative book. If only the actual voices of those who survived that era could be heard today, they would be loudly shouting at us to WAKE UP. This fine tome is the next best thing.As a son of a German immigrant I've heard about the days of hyper-inflation from my father who was born in Hamburg in 1925. His father, a German WWI vet and Freikorp freebooter survived it and made certain that his son heard all about the struggles to survive during that time. Along with hyper-inflation came shootings, thuggery, petty crime, hunger and starvation and a currency so devalued that on the end of the month it was more suitable to use as toilet tissue. Notes printed in denominations of millions, billions, trillions and quadrillions were in common circulation.The author, Adam Fergusson, I assume is a Brit. I have to admit that, as an American, I had trouble at times keeping up with his long sentence structures and following where those overly complicated sentences were leading. But I persevered."When Money Dies" was first published in 1975. It was reprinted in 2010 with "A Note to the 2010 Edition" added ahead of the Prologue and an epilogue added at the end. Thank you Adam Fergusson for your clear and comprehensible explanation of what led to that national nightmare.I strongly recommend "When Money Dies".
Top reviews from other countries
ottomanwho
Un Racconto Avvincente delle Tempeste Economiche
Reviewed in Italy on February 19, 2024Amazon Customer
Luckily our bankers and high ranking civil servants know now how to avoid hyperinflation
Reviewed in Canada on February 11, 2021Andrew Nash
Great day to day account of the impacts of inflation
Reviewed in Australia on February 4, 2022
