Ambrose Evans-Pritchard ruminates on the idea that the value of paper money will, at some point, drop like a rock, citing strong demand for Jens O. Parson’s hard-to-find classic “Dying of Money” as evidence of renewed interest in what might happen when the money multiplier turns sharply positive again, mobilizing bank reserves now on a scale never before seen by man that the wisest economists in the world believe to be harmless today.

In the process, he also shares some details on what life was like in Wiemar Germany and mentions a conspiracy theory about Jews in Germany you may not have heard before, one that, true or not, likely played a role in what Hitler’s Germany did a decade or so later.

Corruption became rampant. People were stripped of their coat and shoes at knife-point on the street. The winners were those who — by luck or design — had borrowed heavily from banks to buy hard assets, or industrial conglomerates that had issued debentures. There was a great transfer of wealth from saver to debtor, though the Reichstag later passed a law linking old contracts to the gold price. Creditors clawed back something.

A conspiracy theory took root that the inflation was a Jewish plot to ruin Germany. The currency became known as “Judefetzen” (Jew- confetti), hinting at the chain of events that would lead to Kristallnacht a decade later.

By the way, I understand there are .pdf copies of Dying of Money floating around on the internet. A thorough search may turn up a copy at considerably less than the $235 now being asked at Amazon or the $699 noted by Ambrose.