Posted on 02/12/2019 1:40:26 PM PST by NRx
I’d seen the black and white photos of German children using bundles of money as building blocks during the Weimar Republic. I’d read about the skyrocketing price of bread in Zimbabwe, and how people were carrying their cash in wheelbarrows. But nothing you read can prepare you for life with hyperinflation.
In the Weimar Republic hyperinflation was largely the result of reparation: payments imposed on Germany after World War I. In Zimbabwe it was the result of Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy and the drop in food production and foreign investment that followed.
But in Venezuela it has been the result of two decades of gross economic mismanagement, profligate public spending, government debt despite a historic oil windfall, and epic corruption. What was once the most prosperous country in the region is now a man-made disaster.
As Venezuela’s political crisis reaches new heights and international pressure mounts against Nicolás Maduro, hyperinflation and the hunger it has sown could worsen. But they could also prove to be the force that hastens his exit from power. In the end, hyperinflation spares no one.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Note to self:
Can more food.
L
“In the Weimar Republic hyperinflation was largely the result of reparation: payments imposed on Germany after World War I.”
Important to note: It wasn’t the reparations themselves that caused the hyperinflation in Weimar Germany, but the fact that the Allies allowed Germany to pay them in paper instead of gold. The printing presses started up, and voila! The German miracle, where they paid off the war debt so much faster than anticipated. While it is more stable, we have an economy built on various pieces of paper instead of real tangible assets.
You can prepare by:
Having shelter
Source of water
Source of food
Source of fuel
Means of protection
Means of basic first aid
Means of trade / barter
couple things can. wont be enjoyable though.
That’s actually backwards. The Allies demanded payment in gold, which left the German central bank with nothing to issue its own people, except paper.
I’m shocked the Slimes is reporting this.
Hard money also helps. But that presupposes that the economy itself doesn’t collapse. In this case it has. That’s the socialism at work. Hyperinflation is the ultimate symptom of a failed state.
You claim phony money is more “stable” despite mentioning hyperinflation in the same sentence?
Yes, only in how it is managed; Weimar Germany, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela just dump banknotes with more and more zeros on them with such frequency they become completely worthless (not worth accepting in exchange for anything of value). Our money, however “phony” it is, can still be exchanged for goods and services around the world - even in the countries of our “enemies” (though it must be concealed). The worst countries don’t even have meaningful exchange rates or international markets for their currencies.
The Germans printed the money non-stop to buy foreign currencies with which to buy gold, and the value of the German banknotes fell. How else would they get all that gold? They certainly didn’t have it in reserves, and no more colonies from which to wring more gold.
It’s really just a matter of degree, not any inherent stability. US currency is not worthless, just worth less as time goes by.
I agree, but it is also stability in a relative comparison. I don’t know of many other countries where you can spend currency from 100 years ago - maybe England? Also, as a collector I can tell you that for all the talk of Italian Lira and Spanish Pesetas, those were the “dollar” denominations of those currencies - they hadn’t made centisimos or centimos (”penny” denominations”) in decades.
That’s a good point, I “researched” that once. I think there are some negotiable securities issued by the BOE or somesuch, but as such there is no national currency or banknotes that come even close as far as I know. That isn’t really a glowing endorsement of funny money, but a testament to America’s political stability. The staying power is also based in part on the dollar being the “reserve currency”, which only came about as a result of the gold coin standard in the first place. I’m not a goldbug but there simply has to be some kind of objective unit of account. This was a fatal error. And the political stability we long enjoyed is long gone, which was rather the point I suppose. The dollar is still the “cleanest dirty shirt” though. Amazing run, Fed reserve notes from 1914 are perfectly legal tender.
Don’t hoard gold. Hoard lead.
The Dawes Plan. How you doing Kearny? Hows things in the old home town?
Time to review top tens lists from folks who have gone through it.
>Toilet paper, everyone needs it, and you can barter.
>Vodka, great for cleaning wounds, and you can get a buzz once in a while. Also, great to barter
>lead, nuff said
They were really concerned the Euro would replace the dollar as the reserve currency. I used to have silver coins from Third World countries that kept circulating them after we had stopped because it was the only way others would have any confidence in it. As I recall, one of the problems for Byzantium before it finally fell was that its currency had less and less gold & silver content - they simply had to give more coins to pay the same armies to defend it (and use in trade).
What’s up? No complaints; I believe they’re finally going to start working on the playing fields along the meadows (actually raising the ground level so they don’t flood as they did in Hurricane Sandy). I see on NJ.com they had a clip of some woman tearing up Harrison’s Quick Check; our attractive nuisance is still (and always will be) Wal-Mart. Apparently more and more people are just trying to walk out after self-scanning half their items...
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