We’re all Venezuelans

Too Long; Didn't Read

<span>D</span>ue to inflation, a cup of coffee in Caracas today costs as many Bolivars as a small apartment in the same area did a mere fifteen years ago. The inflation rate in the country is expected to hit a staggering 13000% in less than a year. The phenomenon is called hyperinflation and it has happened many times before. After the First World War, which was largely financed by loans, Germany inflated its currency to pay off its national debt. By November 1923, one US dollar was worth 4,210,500,000,000 German marks. It has also happened in Austria, China, France, Greece, Hungary, North Korea, Poland, the Philippines, Yugoslavia, Zimbabwe and the Soviet Union. The fall of Ancient Rome was a result of failed geopolitics in which the devaluation of one of the empires currencies, the antoninianus, played a huge part.