CB -
.... I just checked Mason's online catalogue, and they do have Rothbard's "Mystery of Banking" both at the Fenwick library, which is on the Fairfax campus, and in the non-circulating library of the Institute for Human Studies in Arlington. ...
Did you check out a copy?
I've read about 40% of it, having printed out the 177 page, 2.4M .pdf file, and it's very easy going. I'll bet that none of your other history readings reported that the German hyperinflation was also a species extinction event (below). -g-
"...During the latter months of 1923, the German mark suffered from an accelerating spiral of
hyperinflation: the German government (Reichsbank) poured out ever-greater quantifies of paper money which
the public got rid of as fast as possible. In July 1914, the German mark had been worth approximately 25
cents. By November 1923, the mark had depreciated so terrifyingly that it took 4.2 trillion marks to purchase
one dollar (in contrast to 25.3 billion marks to the dollar only the month before).
And yet, despite the chaos and devastation, which wiped out the middle clam, pensioners and
fixed-income groups, and the emergence of a form of barter (often employing foreign currency as money), the
mark continued to be used. How did Germany get out of its runaway inflation? Only when the gov ernment
resolved to stop monetary inflation, and to take steps dramatic enough to convince the inflation-wracked
German public that it was serious about it. The German government brought an end to the crack-up boom by
the “miracle of the Rentenmark.” The mark was scrapped, or rather, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was
issued, valued at 1 trillion old marks, [p. 74] which were convertible into the new currency...."
Regards, Don |
