Listen free for 30 days

  • When Money Dies

  • The Nightmare of Deficit Spending, Devaluation, and Hyperinflation in Weimar, Germany
  • Written by: Adam Fergusson
  • Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
  • Length: 9 hrs
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (44 ratings)

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
When Money Dies cover art

When Money Dies

Written by: Adam Fergusson
Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $31.27

Buy Now for $31.27

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

When Money Dies is the classic history of what happens when a nation's currency depreciates beyond recovery. In 1923, with its currency effectively worthless (the exchange rate in December of that year was one dollar to 4,200,000,000,000 marks), the German republic was all but reduced to a barter economy.

Expensive cigars, artworks, and jewels were routinely exchanged for staples such as bread; a cinema ticket could be bought for a lump of coal; and a bottle of paraffin for a silk shirt. People watched helplessly as their life savings disappeared and their loved ones starved. Germany's finances descended into chaos, with severe social unrest in its wake.

Money may no longer be physically printed and distributed in the voluminous quantities of 1923. However, quantitative easing, that modern euphemism for surreptitious deficit financing in an electronic era, can no less become an assault on monetary discipline. Whatever the reason for a country's deficit - necessity or profligacy, unwillingness to tax, or blindness to expenditure - it is beguiling to suppose that if the day of reckoning is postponed economic recovery will come in time to prevent higher unemployment or deeper recession. What if it does not? Germany in 1923 provides a vivid, compelling, sobering moral tale.

©2010 Adam Fergusson (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

What the critics say

“Engrossing and sobering.” ( Daily Express, London)
“One of the most blood chilling economics books I’ve ever read.” (Allen Mattich, The Wall Street Journal)

What listeners say about When Money Dies

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    32
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    28
  • 4 Stars
    8
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    6
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Too long not as interesting as it could have been

This book could have been shortened half way down and been great.

It felt very repetitive... It was an exhaustively accurate explanation of what happened to money in Germany when hyperinflation struck.

However, it felt very dense...I learned a lot, but I think there was more information than required to tell this story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Difficult to follow in Audio format

Difficult to keep your attention on the listening, a lot of historical information, but listening is difficult to get all the detailed information. would be better as a text book you could read, re-read, underline and mark the important facts...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!