The term "hyperinflation" refers to a very rapid, very large increase in the Measurement problems will be too minor to notice on thisscale. There is no strict formal definition for the term, but cases ofhyperinflation tend to be expressed in terms of multiples rather thanpercentages. "For example, in Germany between January 1922 andNovember 1923 (less than two years!) the average price level increasedby a factor of about 20 billion." Some representative examples ofhyperinflation include"Hyperinflation 1922 Germany 5,000% 1985 Bolivia *10,000% 1989 Argentina 3,100% 1990 Peru 7,500% 1993 Brazil 2,100% 1993 Ukraine 5,000%"These quotations from other web pages are given mainly as examples ofwhat people have in mind when they talk about hyperinflation, and I cannotsay just how accurate the figures are. In any case, figures for thepurchasing power lost in hyperinflations can only be rough estimates.Numismatics (coin and currency collecting) gives some examples of justhow far hyperinflations can go: an information page for currency collectorstells us that, in the Hungarian hyperinflation after World War II, bills forone hundred million trillion pengos were issued (the pengo was theHungarian currency unit) and bills for one billion trillion pengos wereprinted but never issued. (I'm using American terms here -- the Britishexpress big numbers differently). The story behind the German hyperinflation illustrates how allhyperinflations have come about, and is of particular interest in itself. AfterWorld War I, Germany had a democratic government, but little stability. Ageneral named Kapp decided to make himself dictator, and marched histroops and militias into Berlin in an attempted coup d'etat known as the"Kapp Putsch." However, the German people resisted this attempt atdictatorship with nonviolent noncooperation. The workers went out in ageneral strike and the civil servants simply refused to obey the orders ofKapp ...
