百科英语 通货胀 inflation.ppt

inflation In the early 1920s in Germany Workers usually get paid once a week , but in Germany in the early 1920s they got paid twice a day. Besides that, they had an extra half-hour every morning to go shopping for food. If it sounds wonderful , let’s see what one normal day in 1923 was really like. Go shopping for food At 11:30 A.M , work stopped at the factory , and Karl Hoffman lined up with the other workers. The boss gave him two huge bags. “Here ’s your morning’s salary ,” the boss said. “fifty million Germany marks in cash. ” Karl loaded his salary into a wheelbarrow and ran in the direction of a big produce store. Inside , he stood in a long line of people, all with huge bags of money” How much are the onions?“Twenty –five million marks for one.Karl bought two onions and gave herthe contents of his wheelbarrow. Then he returned to work for the afternoon. When Karl arrived home in the evening , he gave his wife the two onions. “ I worked all morning to buy two onions, ” he told her . “ I passed the produce store on my way home, and in just a few hours, food doubled in price. Onions now cost 50 million marks each. My afternoon’s salary is almost worthless. It will buy only one onion. I’m going to burn bills for heat” he threw the paper money into the fire. This story was typical for millions of Germans in the early 1920s. People burned money for heat. They worked for 3 days to buy a pound of butter, and 20 weeks to buy a suit. In the chart below , you can see how the value of the German mark dropped in just 9 years. In 1914, about 4 marks equaled a dollar. Nine years later, about 4 trillion marks equaled a dollar. July 1914 4.2 marks= $1 January 1919 8.9 marks= $1 July 1919 14.0 marks= $1 January 1920 64.8 marks= $1 January 1922 191.8 marks= $1 July 1922 493.2 marks= $1 January 1923 17,972.0 marks= $1 July 1923 353,412.0 marks= $1 August 1923 4,620,455.0 marks= $1 September 1923 98,860,000.0 marks= $1 October 1923 25,260,208,000.0 marks= $