Fool me twice: The lessons we are yet to learn in the 100 years since Weimar hyperinflation

Need to recognise inherent flaws in current system

The word of the Covid era might be ‘unprecedented’, but the economic predicament in which we currently find ourselves is nothing new.

This year marks 100 years since the start of Germany's economic nightmare when it was forced to pay reparations under the Treaty of Versailles on top of an already high level of national debts incurred during the war. This was the beginning of a debt-based system that would unleash huge amounts of sovereign debt and lead to the rapid devaluation of the mark. The end result was hyperinflation and, by late 1923, one loaf of bread cost around 200trn marks. Most people who studied history at school will likely remember tales of this period in Germany where people ditched the wheelbarro...