The Papiermark of Germany in the 1930s. Could it happen? See if any of the below sounds a little familiar.

 

- Reducing manufacturing base.

- Paying back reparations to foreign governments.

- Printing of money.

 

 

Weimar Republic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In 1919, one loaf of bread cost 1 mark; by 1923, the same loaf of bread cost 100 billion marks.

 

 

 

Since striking workers were paid benefits by the state, much additional currency was printed, fuelling a period of hyperinflation. The 1920s German inflation started when Germany had no goods to trade. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this meant payments within Germany were made with worthless paper money, and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. This also led to pay raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from it. Circulation of money rocketed, and soon banknotes were being overprinted to a thousand times their nominal value and every town produced its own promissory notes; many banks & industrial firms did the same.

 

 

The value of the Papiermark had declined from 4.2 per U.S. dollar at the outbreak of World War I to 1 million per dollar by August 1923. This led to further criticism of the Republic. On 15 November 1923, a new currency, the Rentenmark, was introduced at the rate of 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) Papiermark for one Rentenmark, an action known as a monetary reset. At that time, one U.S. dollar was equal to 4.2 Rentenmark. Reparation payments resumed, and the Ruhr was returned to Germany under the Locarno Treaties, which defined a border between Germany, France and Belgium.

 

Emphasis added.

 

I'd like to think this could never happen in the US, but I've gone beyond my capacity for being shocked when you consider the stupidity of both sides of the aisle.

 

I do remember my grandfather — who bolted Germany in 1933 to allegedly avoid the Nazis (I have no reason/proof to believe otherwise), and died when I was 13 — telling stories of carting wheelbarrows full of marks to the baker to buy a loaf of bread. Back in the day I chalked it up to weird Euro stuff that didn't really apply here. I think a lot about Weimar Germany now, and that book I read about the Republic for a class some 25 years ago.

I'd like to think this could never happen in the US, but I've gone beyond my capacity for being shocked when you consider the stupidity of both sides of the aisle.

 

I do remember my grandfather — who bolted Germany in 1933 to allegedly avoid the Nazis (I have no reason/proof to believe otherwise), and died when I was 13 — telling stories of carting wheelbarrows full of marks to the baker to buy a loaf of bread. Back in the day I chalked it up to weird Euro stuff that didn't really apply here. I think a lot about Weimar Germany now, and that book I read about the Republic for a class some 25 years ago.

It can and will happen here if our politicians do not get their act together. If read about the Weimar Republic's hyperinflation and seen pictures of people pushing wheelbarrows of currency around to pay for everyday expenses.

 

I have also seen pictures of people using the marks to wallpaper their homes. It is hard to believe that a country's currency can become so worthless but many countries have gone down the same path as Germany did and to one degree or another, they ended up facing the same problems.

 

Hyperinflation is one of the things that our schools should be teaching in economics and history classes instead of lauding the contributions of obscure historical figures simply because they belong to one protected class or another. We cannot expect our future and fellow Americans to learn from the mistakes of past generations if teachers are not expected to cover the mistakes in class.

Hyperinflation is one of the things that our schools should be teaching in economics and history classes ...

Let's start with teaching kids how to balance a checkbook and let 'em know why it's important not to roll over credit card debt every month.

Let's start with teaching kids how to balance a checkbook and let 'em know why it's important not to roll over credit card debt every month.

It is not an either/or proposition. Kids can learn about the historic blunders that governments have made throughout history so that they can recognize the historic blunders that our current government is making - all while teaching that 2 + 2=4 and how to balance their checkbooks and manage credit card debt.

It is not an either/or proposition. Kids can learn about the historic blunders that governments have made throughout history so that they can recognize the historic blunders that our current government is making - all while teaching that 2 + 2=4 and how to balance their checkbooks and manage credit card debt.

 

And how important is economics to the vaunted Common Core....