How Hyperinflation Destroys Much More Than Just Currencies

To call hyperinflation strictly an economic problem is to overlook its wrenching cultural implications and a general collapse in a system of values.

IN NOVEMBER 1923, there were 4,210,500,000,000 German marks to the dollar. 4.2 trillion. In lay economics, 1 : 4.2 trillion equals worthless.

Such a ruinous currency devaluation exacts steep psychic tolls. Like a startup expensively acquiring users on a thin promise of future monetization, Germany had one operating principle during World War I: hubris. P…