Learn › Economic history › Hyperinflation
Economic history · The world economy
When money stops working
One mechanism, three times, a century apart. What it is like, why it happens, what it takes away, and what it takes to stop one.
Leave an address and you will hear as each module goes up.
Your address joins the Ceteris email list. You can leave at any time, and it is never passed on.
Modules are written to be read in order: each one opens on the question the last one closed with. Start wherever you like.
1 What Hyperinflation Is A wage spent within hours of being paid, and prices that doubled every day. 7 steps · 10 min Done 2 How Hyperinflation Is Financed It has happened about fifty times, and never once because a machine was switched on. 7 steps · 10 min Done 3 The Deficits Behind Hyperinflation A war, a bill it could not pay, and a central bank that was doing the spending itself. 7 steps · 10 min Done 4 Zimbabwe's Land Reform and Venezuela's Oil Every government named an enemy outside, and every one of them kept the financing running. 6 steps · 9 min Done 5 The Costs of Hyperinflation Savings, contracts, the price itself, and a quarter of the people. 8 steps · 12 min Done 6 Stabilising a Hyperinflation Three endings, one condition, and only one of them was designed. 8 steps · 12 min Done 7 Trust in Money After Hyperinflation Prices stop within weeks. The willingness to hold the money is the part that does not. 7 steps · 10 min DoneCountry data from the World Bank (CC BY 4.0) and the UNDP Human Development Report (CC BY 3.0 IGO)
Games · Learn · Atlas · Privacy