Book Review: When Money Dies (A. Fergusson)

I "read" this book as an audiobook. I found it interesting but not particularly exciting. It mostly relates to the economic life in Germany between the end of the First World War and c.a. 1925. During this period the Mark devaluated more than 1.000.000 times with may dramatic (and interesting consequences). What I will remember from this book is the following:

• Inflation (i.e. when your money looses purchasing power) pushes people to buy more things. Since their money looses value day by day, they try to convert it into goods as soon as possible. This is I think the reason behind the small controlled inflation that our government seems to tolerate and even promote. Inflation triggers increased money spending.
  Inflation decreases unemployment. Indeed, since people buy more stuffs, the industries produce more stuffs and we need more people to produce them.
  During inflation, it is a good idea to buy company shares. Companies are real stuffs and they do not lose value. Your money however does lose value. Stock shares increased in value a lot during this high inflation period.
  During inflation, almost everybody suffered a lot. The middle/upper class suffered a lot. People were not using doctors, lawyers, accountant and so on anymore. They were busier trying to find food.  The civil servants suffered a lot. They were not protected by syndicates and their wages did not increase or not much while everything was getting much more expensive. The renters suffered the most. Their rent was a fixed amount... The workers suffered relatively less because they were better organised to defend themselves. They could make strikes and ask for raises in their salaries. They also lost purchasing power during this period but less than the people above. The Farmers were the lucky one. Their product got more expensive and people still had to buy them. Also, they always had enough to eat due to their own production. Furthermore, they had to repay the big investments they did but their debt appeared tinier and tinier in relative terms. At the end however, the city people came to steal the food present in the farms...
• Deflation (when stuffs get cheaper every day) pushes people to keep their money because this money will permit to buy more tomorrow than today. This is something bad for "the economy" because people stop to buy stuffs. It also increases unemployment because since nobody buys anything anymore, industries do not need to produce so much either.

This inflation was apparently the result of the "high reparation" demands from France and England and from the fact that the German authorities never hesitated to print more and more money to cover their expenses, thereby devaluating it...