Though history books have reduced Germany's post-WWI currency crack-up to visions of wheelbarrows full of marks being brought to the marketplace to buy life's necessities, the reality was quite a bit different. As Adam Fergusson explained it in When Money Dies, his classic account of Germany's tragic hyperinflation, marks were rather scarce. That they were should be a statement of the obvious. With the German currency having plummeted to 4.2 billionth of a dollar, no sane producer of anything passably valuable accepted marks in return.
It's all a reminder of what an obnoxious farce are notions like “easy money” and Gresham's Law, not to mention the wrongheaded belief that has sadly even captivated some Austrian scholars: that central banks armed with printing presses are capable of financing ever-expanding government. No, they can't. Markets are very wise. The producers who populate those markets are wise. They're not going to accept currency that is exchangeable for less than what they're bringing to the marketplace to begin with.
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