>they often think it is just a case of governments printing too much money. The exorbitant banknotes we see in this collection are more like each government's

>they often think it is just a case of governments printing too much money. The exorbitant banknotes we see in this collection are more like each government's response to inflation once it has gone completely out-of-control. In some sense they are trying to arrest the free-fall at an artificially imposed numerical point, by basically normalizing the losses already incurred up until that time. Just goes to show how much easier it can be to manipulate the value of fiat currency compared to coin of stored value. Seems like when stocks & bonds are denominated in fiat currency, in order for the securities to maintain their relative value, whilst maintaining volatility within tolerable ranges, the only direction for the currency to ever trend is being downward in value by comparison. When stock certificates represent overwhelmingly more stored value than their equivalent in legal tender, that's not when you're going to have the most prosperity overall. This is not the way free enterprise started out. We recovered well from that most recent devaluation is something that no ordinary wage earner said ever.