Amos Scaggs - 3/19/09
I dreamt I went up to the cash register
to pay for an item. When I pulled out my money to pay, the dollar had
devaluated by hundreds of dollars. (Note from David:
The dollar became valued at hundredths of its former value. Hundreds of
dollars would be worth less than a dollar.) I had several hundred
dollars in my hand to pay for a $60 item, but that wasn’t enough. By the
time I was quoted the price and was in the process of paying, the dollar
lost its value by hundreds. (I had another, different card that would
purchase the item.) Then after that it was the barter system.
A day's wage for a loaf of bread is
coming to our doorstep.
*Berlin - December 1918 bread was 0.5 Marks;
November 1923 bread was 201,000,000,000 Marks
*One egg in 1913 was 0.08 Mark; November 1923 one egg
was 80,000,000,000 Marks
*One pair of shoes in 1913 was 12.00 Marks; November
of 1923 shoes were 32,000,000,000,000 Marks
One man said: I dropped into a cafe to have a
coffee. As I went in I noticed the price was 5000 marks - just about what I had
in my pocket. I sat down, read my paper, drank my coffee, and spent altogether
about one hour in the cafe, and then asked for the bill. The waiter duly
presented me with a bill for 8000 marks. "Why 8000 marks?" I asked. The mark had
dropped in the meantime, I was told. So I gave the waiter all the money I had,
and he was generous enough to leave it at that. --The memories of a German writer
One of the causes of the inflation was Germany printed
more and more money to pay off war debts.
Does that sound familiar? We call it stimulus and
buybacks.
