Inflation: Soviet Style; W. Peterson

the bunker in which Hitler had com mitted suicide), that the market functioned daily at all hours, slow ing down only for darkness or drenching rain, that the number of traders was usually in the dozens but swelling to the hundreds on Sunday afternoons, that the trading-and higgling-was never in booths but always· on foot with traders circling around to get the best bid-and-ask prices, with most merchandise sold generally passing from pocket to pocket. The traders were not Germans nearly so much as uniformed Rus sians and Americans with fewer Bri tish and French soldiers participating. With German money worthless, the currency was occupation marks lots of it. Soviet plates were supplied 207 208 THE FREEMAN by the U.S. Treasury Department, according to Stars and Stripes, the Soviet occupying forces were sud denly given months and months of back pay-in occupation currency. Russian officers frequently carried satchels full of it. Russian enlisted men often had bagfuls.

Prices zoomed. German men and women, for the most part ragged, hollow-eyed, thin, forlorn-looking, peddled what wealth had escaped the bombing and burning-silver, jew elry, Zeiss binoculars, Leica cam eras, Meissen china (frequently chipped) and bric-a-brac including ashtrays, lamps, clocks and cheap paintings-all at fancy prices. I saw a used commonplace alarm clock go for the equivalent of $85-in 1945 dollars. The main stock in trade, however, consisted of wrist watches and cig arettes (which became a kind of sec ondary currency). The watches and cigarettes were overwhelmingly supplied by the Americans, much of these items flown in unofficially by U.S. airmen, and overwhelmingly bought by the Russians. Prices became crazier. A carton of cigarettes went for $200. I saw Mickey Mouse wrist watches (which sold at home for about $5.95) com mand $150 and Waltham watches, retailing in the States for around $16.95, sell for $300.

Understandably, the U.S. Army Post Office in Berlin did a land-office business in money orders, with the 82nd Airborne Division, the main U.S. contingent stationed in the Ger man capital, sending home far more money than it had been paid. In the end, some $250 million worth of So viet occupation currency, according to estimates, had been converted into dollars-with the bill of course picked up by the American taxpayer. Who else? ® IDEAS ON LIBERTY Obliteration of Thrift As VALUES became more and more uncertain, there was no longer any motive for care or economy, but every motive for immediate expenditure and present enjoyment. So came upon the nation the obliteration ofthrift· In this mania for yielding to present enjoyment rather than providing for future comfort were the seeds of new growths of wretchedness: lux ury, senseless and extravagant, set in. This, too, spread as a fashion. To feed it, there came cheatery in the nation at large and corruption among officials and persons holding trusts.

ANDREW DICKSON WHITE, Fiat Money Inflation in France Hal Watkins Some Thingsto ThinkAbout LUDWIG VON MISES is remembered and respected as a great economist, but it is significant that his most memorable work is a book called Hu man Action. Classic libertarians use this volume as their textbook on eco nomics. Mises recognized that ma terialism is not the basic motivation for human action, but that there are more subtle stimulae involved. Materialism is not synonymous with self-interest, but many intelli gent, sincere people think it is. By taking advantage of this confusion socialists/communists are able to sell their delusion to the unsuspecting. These interventionists take advan tage of a primitive motive that man ifests itself prominently in early childhood: covetousness. When you The Reverend Mr. Watkins edits and pUblishes The Printed Preacher, a monthly gospel message, 303 North Third, Dayton, Washington 99328.