When Money Dies Audiobook By Adam Fergusson cover art

When Money Dies

The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany

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When Money Dies

By: Adam Fergusson
Narrated by: John Curless
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$8.99/mo. after 3 months. Cancel anytime. Offer ends July 5, 2026 at 11:59pm PT.

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The classic history of the political and economic devastation wrought by runaway inflation in Weimar Germany—“brilliant” (Guardian)

In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy. Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany's finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake.

Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, "quantitative easing," that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country's deficit—
necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax or blindness to expenditure—it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale. 20th Century Economic History Economics Europe Germany Modern Imperialism War Taxation Socialism Money
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Critic reviews

“Engrossing and sobering.”—Daily Express (London)
“One of the most blood chilling economics books I’ve ever read.”—Allen Mattich, Wall Street Journal
“Everybody ought to read this book. But Baby Boomers must.”—Wall Street Journal
”A brilliant account of how Germany's Weimar Republic was consumed by hyperinflation.”—The Guardian
“A timely warning of the potentially dire consequences when central banks hit the printing presses.”—The Week
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Clear and comprehensive walkthrough of this history time piece. Adequately covering social, political and economical factors that led to the countries most difficult economic period in history.

Comprehensive walkthrough of Germany’s 1920s hyperinflationary period

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