... and won't be doomed to repeat it. However, economic conditions after Katrina do seem to have some eerie parallels -
""In Costantino Bresciani-Turroni's masterful book The Economics of Inflation: A Study of Currency Depreciation in Post-War Germany, he observed a boom-bust cycle brought about by Germany's monetary central planning. Bresciani-Turroni states the following:
At first, perhaps, the political and social effects of the inflation were not altogether unfavorable. In the period of the serious social and political disturbance, which followed the military defeat, the presence of acute unemployment would have been a cause of trouble. The inflation made possible the rapid absorption of the unemployed at the expense of the small capitalist classes. Later, however, the depreciation of the mark provoked continual agitation among workers, who demanded increases in wages; in 1923 discontent spread further and further among other classes of society. Among the old middle classes, ruined by the inflation, extreme nationalist propaganda was started and made rapid headway, and among workers communist ideas spread. (pg. 330)."
The "ruin" mentioned by Bresciani-Turroni pertained to the bust inevitably brought on by the central bank induced boom. The value of houses collapsed. The stock market collapsed. However, prices for everyday goods such as food, clothing, and other basic necessities soared as a result of the rapidly depreciating currency. Unfortunately, this economic instability provided fertile ground for the National Socialists to emerge as the political party with the answers to Germany's problems. The rest is a sad history."



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