When Money Dies
The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany

Adam Fergusson has taken one of the more dramatic episodes in economic history and rendered it sterile and devoid of life. His narrative suffers from an over-reliance upon the historical perspective described by Toynbee: "One damn thing after another." Consider the mid-war inflation of the mark: it w......more

Heavy on numbers and written in a dry, detached style, this can be a bit of a slog at times. Nevertheless it's compelling, in a car-crash kind of way, because the reader knows that this story is the precursor to National Socialism and carnage beyond our imagination (at that time). 30 years ago it wou......more

This book effortlessly sets the stage for the Germany's 1923 hyperinflation that would be exploited by the National Socialist Workers’ Party. With this grand scale of inflation and devaluation, Germany experiences social unrest, political turmoil, and bureaucratic upheaval. This book takes you step......more

I am pretty surprised by the negative reviews I see here, and I have a gut feeling this is one of those books whose content biases people into having a take on the book without even reading it. Regardless of your stance on fiscal and monetary prudence, this book ought to be a must read alongside boo......more

There's plenty of useful data and interesting anecdotes in the book - if you can manage to keep reading until you reach them. The writing alternates between confusing messes of exchange rates and prices to over-the-top sections that look like they were edited by replacing every second word with a mor......more