The Economics Of Inflation - A Study Of Currency Depreciation In Post War Germany [Paperback]

Costantino Bresciani - Turroni (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2006

Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. Hesperides Press are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

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Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: Hesperides Press (May 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1406722413
• ISBN-13: 978-1406722413
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,140,121 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nonlinearity in Economics, March 20, 2009

By 

Dr. Goetz K. Oertel "Goetz von Berlichingen" (Potomac, MD) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Economics Of Inflation - A Study Of Currency Depreciation In Post War Germany (Paperback)

This work contains an impressive amount of information about inflation in Germany during the 1920s - more than enough to demonstrate the viciousness of the beast once it was unleashed. The tome also describes how people worked around the effects and how some benefitted handsomely. If double-digit inflation - or worse - were to return to America, the lessons that can be learned from this book could prove very valuable. It takes some digging to get at the "nuggets" - but these insights are well worth the effort.
Two factors make this book a hard study. First, the author provides so much information as to literally "demolish" the issue - and probably many a reader's patience and endurance, too. Less would have been more! Second, the author spends many pages trying to separate causes from effects. For example, did policy decisions cause inflation and the increase of money in circulation - or did the printing of money cause inflation regardless of policy or even in the absence of it. To an aficionado who is not a professional economist, such questions seem moot: the two phenomena seem related in a non-linear way - in which each can feed back to (and on) the other. Cause and effect can then be hard to separate - and arguments among adherents of different perceptions can then appear to be based more on faith than on sound analysis. One is reminded of academic fights which - as Henry Kissinger once quipped - are especially tough because the stakes are so small.
The translation into English is welcome to those of us who do not read Italian. Deplorably, the quality of the translation leaves much to be desired: awkward formulations and grammar detract from substance and flavor. The book cries out for a good editor who understands the subject and can put it in plain English. Then again, that is hardly uncommon.
In sum, I recommend the book to all who wish to know how super-inflation developed in Germany in the 1920s, who was hurt and who benefitted, and therefore how one might defend against future inflation. Readers can expect to learn much about effects but little about causes. The insights to be gained are well worth the considerable effort and tenacity that is required to gain them.

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good somewhat dry description of events, September 19, 2007

By 

R. Acker (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Economics Of Inflation - A Study Of Currency Depreciation In Post War Germany (Paperback)

This is a description from an Economists view of the German Hyperinflation of 1917 - 1923 from an Economist who lived through that time.

It describes what asset groups and societal groups prospered and which did not.

IMHO it is required reading.

Here is a portion of the Forward, written in 1937:

The depreciation of the mark of 1914 - 23, which is the subject of this work, is one of the outstanding episodes in the history of the twentieth century. Not only by reason of its magnitude but also by reason of its effects, it looms large on our horizon. It was the most colossal thing of its kind in history: and, next probably to the Great War itself, it must bear responsibility for many of the political and economic difficulties of our generation. It destroyed the wealth of the more solid elements in German society: and it left behind a moral and economic disequilibrium, apt breeding ground for the disasters which have followed. Hitler is the foster child of the inflation... If we are to understand correctly the present position of Europe, we must not neglect the study of the great German inflation. If we are to plan for greater stability in the future, we must learn to avoid the mistakes from which it sprang...