Hyper Inflation, if Schiff is correct( he has a good track record), would be very scary to live through.
Germany did go through Hyper Inflation pre WW2.
I recently connected a old folks home in Southern Saskatchewan to the internet. One lady stands out in that she was from Germany and had been part of
the Hitler Youth.
As I set up her cable modem we struck up a conversation concerning where she had farmed with her husband, how she came to Canada from Germany and how
long she had had her little apartment since her husband had died.
As I got her PC on line she had mentioned how she missed many things about Germany so I went to the ATS sight as I knew of a thread that had some
pictures of the mountains of Germany.
Also, in the thread their was pictures of Hitler looking through a telescope at a certain mountain.
Anyways, as I taught her some basics concerning the internet she told me that she had been part of Hitlers youth.
She said that Hitler had been viewed as a saviour by the many of the adults of Germany since he had brought prosperity after a period of Hyper
Inflation.
She said that things had gotten so out of control before Hitler took power that many many had lost farms, property, factories had closed etc...and
that the German currancy became worthless until Hitler began to take control.
Here is a PBS look at Germany during Hyper Inflation
Before World War I Germany was a prosperous country, with a gold-backed currency, expanding industry, and world leadership in optics, chemicals, and
machinery. The German Mark, the British shilling, the French franc, and the Italian lira all had about equal value, and all were exchanged four or
five to the dollar. That was in 1914. In 1923, at the most fevered moment of the German hyperinflation, the exchange rate between the dollar and the
Mark was one trillion Marks to one dollar, and a wheelbarrow full of money would not even buy a newspaper. Most Germans were taken by surprise by the
financial tornado.
But the bourgeois habits were very strong. Ordinary citizens worked at their jobs, sent their children to school and worried about their grades,
maneuvered for promotions and rejoiced when they got them, and generally expected things to get better. But the prices that had doubled from 1914 to
1919 doubled again during just five months in 1922. Milk went from 7 Marks per liter to 16; beer from 5.6 to 18. There were complaints about the high
cost of living. Professors and civil servants complained of getting squeezed. Factory workers pressed for wage increases. An underground economy
developed, aided by a desire to beat the tax collector.
The publisher Leopold Ullstein wrote: "People just didn't understand what was happening. All the economic theory they had been taught didn't
provide for the phenomenon. There was a feeling of utter dependence on anonymous powers -- almost as a primitive people believed in magic -- that
somebody must be in the know, and that this small group of 'somebodies' must be a conspiracy."
www.pbs.org...
If we face the monster of Hyper Inflation it may pave a road to a Hitler again.
.....THE thing that struck me concerning the old lady was the fact that she did not hate Hitler in the way I was taught too....she still looked up to
him somewhat it seemed.
Being someone who does not fully understand economics some questions I have would be...
1. Would the whole of the Western World undergo Hyper Inflation or just the US
2. I am sure that the Fed and the Executive Branch are aware of this. Will they take measures to stop Hyper Inflation or will they fan the flames of
Hyper Inflation?
[edit on 11-10-2008 by whiteraven]
