Bank on it
One event in 2023 which the government and Bank of England will not want to draw attention to is the 100th anniversary of the peak of the Weimar inflation.
– The value of the German mark had already been plummeting in the early 1920s as the German government printed money to pay reparations to the victors of the Great War. But inflation was given a further boost in early 1923 as yet more money was printed in order to pay striking workers in the occupied Ruhr region. Between the beginning of 1923 and November of that year, prices rose a billionfold. Stabilisation was only achieved after the Weimar government issued new banknotes backed by mortgage securities, which in turn were backed by the price of gold. Inflation, strikes, demands for reparations. Surely it couldn’t all happen again…
Auld acquaintance
Other anniversaries in 2023:
50th Three-day week; UK entry into the European Economic Community.
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