Hitler Didn’t Create Economic Recovery

“R” asks Walter Block “But how did his [Hitler’s] National Socialism get Germany out [of] depression and hyperinflation?”

Hitler didn’t get Germany out of hyperinflation. That was done long before he came to power. The hyperinflation was in the early 1920s. It was brought to an end by issuing a new currency tied to gold.

Hitler’s economic measures didn’t get Germany out of depression in the sense of restoring a sound and sustainable economy. Within 12 years, his measures had devastated the country. Hitler’s measures put people to work creating a war economy and a controlled economy. This required government deficit spending, rationing and various industrial controls. None of this was consistent with a real recovery or movement out of depression; and it created suppressed inflation. Government spending can put people to work for a time and give the appearance of a recovery, but this will eventually collapse.

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