When money dies
This book is about the collapse of the Weimar Republic in Germany shortly after WW 1, which was prefaced by a period of deflation. The collapse was distinguished by a period of severe hyperinflation that rendered the German currency worthless.
Stats for nerds
8recommend
13mentions
13people
2011–2025years
62% recommend38% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- A great book on this subject but I didn't see cited in the article is "When Money Dies": https://www.amazon.com/When-Money-Dies-Devaluation-Hyperinfl...
Uses a mix of old economic stats paired with German citizens journals and public newspapers to tell the story of how hyperinflation in Germany started and then ended, but not before creating so much distrust in society that the seeds were sewn for the country to take a militaristic stance to fixing its problems. Highly recommend the book above.
- For a guy who bought a house with a loan at 2.25%, gas prices might be the only meaningful metric.
Not everybody is as lucky as you, bud. People are watching the value of their savings evaporate before their very eyes as they try to put together down payments for a home or find a minivan for their growing family.
It’s a real problem, and if you want to see what a world where it doesn’t get fixed quickly looks like, go read the book “When Money Dies.” Pretending it doesn’t exist won’t fix it either.
- Highly recommend the book “When Money Dies” about hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic. It digs into how the inflation grew and its effects on real people. Those who illegally transferred their savings to foreign currency early did the best, but many long term savers had their entire life savings wiped out.
Early in the process people were exuberant since the markets were rising and their paper net worth was increasing, so they were selling valuable assets like pianos for money that would quickly become worthless. Eventually the farmers became extremely powerful since they had the one thing everyone needed.
Also worth mentioning that Bitcoin’s volatility makes it a poor inflation hedge, but this is for different reasons than the author of the article suggests. It’s more because the Bitcoin ecosystem is highly manipulated and it’s still unclear what a fair price for Bitcoin looks like.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1586489941/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm...
- You could replace Bitcoin with USD and say the same thing. Any currency has value because those in power insist on taxes being paid in that currency, otherwise it is just what people believe it to be. Read "When Money Dies", excellent book about how a government can ruin the trust that is the basis of fiat.
- I recommend the book by Andrew Fergusson called "When Money Dies" which is about the period of hyperinflation in Weimar Germany. Note that I do not claim to know 100% that this will happen in the USA .
It was written in the late 1970s I believe so is not geared to anything "trendy" for today and I think this makes the book better.
- Read When Money Dies by Adam Fergusson. This is the worst thing that can happen.
Having lived through hyperinflation, I do believe that printing trillions (+40% last 12 months, +75% since '09 crisis) has negative consequences.
There is no free lunch.
