Friday, August 15, 2014

Lord Keynes — Liquidationism and early 1930s Germany: Not a Good Mix!


Eye-opener. It was not the Weimar hyperinflation that brought Hitler and the Nazis to power but deflationary depression.
By 1928, during the economic boom in Germany, the Nazi party vote looked like it was almost dead and was only 2.6%. Remarkably, even in the aftermath of the Weimar hyperinflation in 1924 it was only 3%. 
When the deflationary depression struck Germany from 1929–1932, it soared to 18.3% (September 1930), then 37.3% (July 1932), and finally to 43.9% in March 1933 in the aftermath of the Great Depression.
Social Democracy For The 21St Century: A Post Keynesian Perspective
Liquidationism and early 1930s Germany: Not a Good Mix!
Lord Keynes

Ominously, deflationary depression threatens Europe again owing to austerity and the persistent German anti-inflation fetish. Some lessons are never learned.

See also Yves Smith,  Is the West Risking Financial Blowback From Sanctions on Russia? at Naked Capitalism.

Matt O'Brien,  Europe’s Greater Depression is worse than the 1930s at the Washington Post.

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