Think it can't happen here? Jason Lankow at the personal finance site Mint.com lays out the tales of nine failed currencies.
Included in the list are:
• Germany's Weimar Republic, which hit 325 million percent inflation.
• The Austrian Pengo, which traded at 400 octillion to the U.S. dollar. Yes, there is such a thing as an "octillion."
• Chile's very brief experimentation with the printing presses, ending violently in a military coup.
• The Argentine experience, which went on for decades and by some measure is still going on today.
• And similar blow-ups in Peru, Yugoslavia, Angola, Belarus, and Zimbabwe.
Interestingly, no mention of perennial inflation punchline Brazil, which has gotten its act together in recent years, even under a communist president. (You don't fool with what works seems to be the lesson there.)
Nor is there mention of the historic collapse of the British pound, perhaps the closest thing — aside from the early 1970s Chilean experience — to what Americans might face if the Fed keeps on printing new money hand over foot.
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