Weimar Germany
Not a current market: a historical case study, and the one every investor reaches for when discussing monetary debasement. Included because the 1922-23 German inflation is the best-documented hyperinflation there is, and because the reparations argument behind it is a permanent part of the literature.
9 books
Start here
- When Money DiesAdam Fergusson, 1975
- Lords of FinanceLiaquat Ahamed, 2009
- The Economics of InflationConstantino Bresciani-Turroni, 1937
Books 9
John Maynard Keynes · 1919 · Written before the fact by a Treasury insider; the reparations arithmetic that set up the collapse.
Constantino Bresciani-Turroni · 1937 · The contemporary economist's study; still the technical reference on the hyperinflation.
Adam Fergusson · 1975 · The canonical narrative account of the 1923 inflation and what it did to savers and creditors.
Barry J. Eichengreen · 1992 · The gold standard as the mechanism that transmitted and prolonged the disaster.
Liaquat Ahamed · 2009 · Schacht, Norman and the central bankers who ended the inflation and then caused the next crisis.
Carl-Ludwig Holtfrerich · 1986 · The revisionist case that the inflation had real benefits before it broke.
Steven B. Webb · 1989 · How expectations and fiscal credibility ended the inflation almost overnight.
Gerald D. Feldman · 1993 · The scholarly standard; corrects Fergusson on who gained and who lost.
Frederick Taylor · 2013 · Modern retelling with more on the stabilisation and the Rentenmark.