5. Covering the State’s War Costs
There were three ways available to cover the costs that the State Treasury incurred in the war.
The LA Times reported on December 16:
Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government’s prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.
War and the Economy
2. War Socialism
So-called war socialism has been regarded as sufficiently argued for and justified with reference mostly to the emergency created by the war. In war, the inadequate free economy supposedly cannot be allowed to exist any longer; into its place must step something more perfect, the administered economy. Whether or not one should return after the war to the “un-German” system of individualism was said to be another question that could be answered in different ways.
3. Autarky and Stockpiling
The clearer it had to become in the course of the war that the Central Powers were bound to be finally defeated in the war of starving out, the more energetically were references made from various sides to the necessity of preparing better for the next war. The economy would have to be reshaped in such a way that Germany would be capable of withstanding even a war of several years.
4. The Economy’s War Costs and the Inflation
The losses that the national economy suffers from war, apart from the disadvantages that exclusion from world trade entails, consist of the destruction of goods by military actions, of the consumption of war material of all kinds, and of the loss of productive labor that the persons drawn into military service would have rendered in their civilian activities.
1. The Economic Position of the Central Powers in the War
The economic aspects of the World War are unique in history in kind and in degree; nothing similar ever existed before nor ever will exist again. This combination of developments was in general conditioned both by the contemporary stage of development of the division of labor and state of war technique, but in particular by both the grouping of the belligerent powers and the particular features of their territories as far as geography and technique of production were concerned.
It worth taking note that the United States government has just surpassed the $18 trillion mark. Of course, that is almost a symbolic mark given the avalanche of debt coming in the form of unfunded future liabilities. Most of these unfunded liabilities are related to promised spending on Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare, but there are sources as well. We have seen credible sources estimate these liabilities in excess of $200 trillion, but even more optimistic estimates will see the national debt swell to $100 trillion in just a few decades.
VI. The Inflationist Argument
Nowadays, the thesis is maintained that sound monetary relationships may certainly be worth striving for, but public policy is said to have other higher and more important goals. As serious an evil as inflation is, it is not considered the most serious. If it is a choice of protecting the homeland from enemies, feeding the starving and keeping the country from destruction, then let the currency go to rack and ruin. And if the German people must pay off a tremendous war debt, then the only way they can help themselves is through inflation.
VII. The New Monetary System
The bedrock and cornerstone of the provisional new monetary system must be the absolute prohibition of the issue of any additional notes not completely covered by gold.
