When Money Dies: The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany Paperback – October 12, 2010

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.

The main points are made in numerous ways with detail, often repetitive, but the author's sentence structure, use of tenses, and style are off-putting and ragged. Regardless of where current readers are today with their own currencies, the array of terms used in Germany back then to describe amounts, complicated by the seemingly limitless varieties of tries at coming up with "new" currencies, even local ones that would work locally, to buy and pay for things (ranging from simple foodstuffs to foreign currencies, and rapid changes in their acceptance, utility and value), is confusing and hard to unlock. Attempts to compare then and now by reference to what happened in Germany after WWI and up to the early '30s, except for regular goverment abuse of the money printing press, are unlikely to bear fruit. This history would be scarier and more relevant to our current times, as it seems it should be, if it was easier and more accessible to use what is in the book for a comparison with our current day.

It was Weimar Germany and the story is narrated with minute details. Riveting. What happened during these roaring 20s changed the world forever... the intense pain and suffering of the German people during this time paved the way for the Third Reich and for World War II and the holocaust. When people are pushed off the edge, they end up doing the unthinkable. If you are able to draw the parallels between the Germany of the 1920's and the USA of 2011, you might understand how an infamous Austrian took the reins of Germany early on in 1933 and what the possibilities are in the upcoming US elections... Ron Paul? Hillary Clinton? Sarah Palin? Rahm Emmanuel? John McCain? Definitely not Barack Obama. If Ron Paul gets elected, it would be the best thing that ever happened to the United States of America after independence from Great Britain. Paul would force a silver/gold standard. The worst thing that could happen to the USA would be Palin or McCain in charge, and Quantitative Easing to Infinity. If any of the latter two would be elected, the Third World War would be imminent and every human on the planet would find out what the "Straight of Hormuz" means and where it is located. At the writing of this review, the war for Libya raged on, and the people of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria and Morocco were out on the streets calling for regime change, and reaching out for freedom.When Money Dies will show you about paper money and what it is based on, namely flatulence. Derivatives, bonds, treasury certificates, ETF's... they're all part of the cess pool. Stay away from any paper money, the stock market, housing, and especially bonds and ETF's. Think supply and demand. It's the simplest concept: If there is oversupply of something (think US Dollars, Euros, Japanese Yen, Chinese Yuan, Bonds, ETF's and houses) then its value goes down... and when there is not enough supply of something (think oil, food, water) then its value goes up... and I mean up next to the moon.Led by the Federal Reserve, the central banks of every nation in the world, including the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of China, and the European Central Bank have no option but to continue the money printing rhythm of the Fed. Think of it as a philarmonic orchestra following the baton of a Conductor on Speed. Fail to follow the money printing rhythm would make their export industries collapse, and they would disappoint the corporations and the BIG MONEY that put them in office. The politicians just keep playing the musical chairs game and hope the music stops after they have completed their term in office, and after they have filled their pockets with money stolen from the wallet of the people.This book was a very informative read. It also teaches you a lot about human nature. BTW German grandparents experienced this stuff, but I am not sure their children and grandchildren remember history. I do have faith in the German people and I believe they will dump the Euro by 2013 (that is if the Euro does not collapse before then) and go back to the German Mark, which will, I'm sure be based on something other than... flatulence. As for the Argentines, they lived this at the beginning of the XXI century and are reliving it only a decade later. Zimbabwe collapsed in 2007, people started bartering with silver, gold, diamonds, US dollars and other fiat monies. I guess they will have to stick to diamonds and precious metals when US dollars start raining from the sky.Goodbye, fiat currencies of the world, goodbye US Dollar, Hello, QE3.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.... I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."