Talk:Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic

Milliard

I would suggest to change the description of the picture that shows the bank note; I am aware that milliard is a perfectly valid term for the number 1,000,000,000 (at least in GB), however, "billion" would be a lot more common in other parts of the anglosphere and on the internet. --Mr.Mister (talk) 18:07, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

Your objection is appropriate for the translation of the round medal caption where milliarden (plural of milliard) should be translated as billion, and I have done so. However, the words "over-stamped in red with a one milliard, ([long scale], so 1,000,000,000) mark" requires an exact quote from the note, followed by the translation. It should not say "over-stamped in red with one billion". Greensburger (talk) 21:02, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

LitwinP

A critical element to the root cause of inflation and hyperinflation in general that your article seems to have overlooked is the central bank and its main-staple appetite, i.e., printing phony money against no real assets to pay off governmental debt, and inundating our currency with this counterfeit money, which dilutes our money's buying power and conversely cause goods and services to increase in price. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Litwinp (talk • contribs) 18:57, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Long term effects

Could the independence of the German Central Bank, the strong West German Mark and the German suspicions against Euro be linked to traumatic memories of the inflation? --Error (talk) 02:12, 21 January 2010 (UTC)

Cause

The "History" section says there's a perception that reparations were the cause of hyperinflation, and unhelpfully only says that this perception is misleading. Could a knowledgeable editor actually write a section about the fundamental and ongoing causes? Comet Tuttle (talk) 17:01, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

The cause of the inflation was the government's choice to print money to solve its problems, rather than taxing or borrowing. The Keynes quotation in the Importance section says exactly this. As far as a "knowledgeable editor" goes, try Dr. Sennholz's article for the Mises Instituted for further detail: [1]. --StringRay (talk) 14:02, 15 April 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, this sentence makes no sense. "It is sometimes argued that Germany had to inflate its currency to pay the war reparations required under the Treaty of Versailles, but this is misleading, because the Reparations Commission required payment to be in gold marks or in foreign currency, not in the rapidly depreciating paper mark."

If the paper mark is losing value, then the fact that Germany had to pay its debts in gold or foreign currency does require it to print an ever increasing amount in order to pay off those debts220.191.53.137 (talk) 05:54, 27 March 2011 (UTC)

It is true that "the fact that Germany had to pay its debts in gold or foreign currency does require it to print an ever increasing amount in order to pay off those debts". But the point of the disputed sentence is to correct a common misunderstanding that Germany tried to pay reparations in rapidly depreciating paper marks. What they did was to try to buy foreign exchange with rapidly depreciating paper marks, which caused the paper mark to depreciate even faster. Greensburger (talk) 13:56, 27 March 2011 (UTC)