Well the interesting measure is the dept to GDP ratio, and as long as this ratio stays constant, the government is not really getting into financial trouble. Ru

Well the interesting measure is the dept to GDP ratio, and as long as this ratio stays constant, the government is not really getting into financial trouble. Running the numbers, I find that the ratio stays constant for D'=g*D, where D' is the new dept, g the GDP growth and D the total dept. Additionally this just need to hold on average, that is a government should bring down the dept/GDP ratio in the boom ( when multipliers are low anyhow) so that it can spend during the bust ( when the multipliers are higher). But note that the government can run deficits all the time. About your examples, the first sentence of the Wikipedia article for Zimbabwe is: [1] "Hyperinflation in Zimbabwe began shortly after destruction of productive capacity in Zimbabwe's civil war and confiscation of private farms." While in Weimar Germany the French occupation of the Ruhr valley, the at that time most important industrial region of Germany, directly preceded the hyperinflation. ( And arguably the Beer Hall Putsch [2], Hitlers first attempt to seize power, was the more important event in '23.) [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperinflation_in_Zimbabwe [2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_Hall_Putsch