Saturday, August 30, 2014

Presses, Bloody Presses

According to historian, Gustav Stopler, Germany's government increased its monetary base by a whopping 490% during the first world war. It was a strategy that was obviously aimed at paying off its huge war debt (being that the borrowing alone wasn't sufficient) and, while, yeah, it did in fact work for a short time, damned if it (along of course with the burden of reparations, the high cost of resistance, the welfare state, etc.) didn't also produce a runaway inflation that ultimately crippled both the public (libraries, museums, pensions, veterans care, etc.) AND private (housing, insurance, farming, retail, etc.) sectors......Wow, and there are still some idiots out there (Paul Krugman, for instance) who think that war is boffo for the economy.

3 comments:

dmarks said...

Krugman is one of the worst kind of fascists (short of those who want to kill large numbers of people). He consistently speaks for the power and privilege of the ruled, and hates the idea of the people controlling their own lives...in healthcare, economics, and other matters.

He has strong appeal to the bootlicking wing of the Democrats and Left.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

The sad thing, dmarks, is that once upon a time Paul Krugman actually WAS a serious economist (his work on free trade I believe was what got the dude his Nobel) but he threw it all away to be this hard-core partisan hack.......I'm obviously not a big fan.

dmarks said...

I remember him arguing during the 2008 election that the middle class needed tax hikes.