One of Germany’s most prominent economists, Hans-Werner Sinn, warns of hyperinflation; he links it directly to Hitler's rise to power. A distortion of history: the rise of the Nazis was preceded by deflation, exacerbated by fiscal austerity. Thread /1

https://t.co/hmAz0tsyuv

Sinn says hyperinflation after WW1 impoverished the German middle class in the Weimar Republic: "Ten years later they elected Adolf Hitler as Reich Chancellor." Policy recommendation today against hyperinflation: "tighter budget constraints" /2

https://t.co/ydfxgiCpkD
Sinn thus feeds a widespread misinterpretation. Mass poverty when the Nazis came to power in 1933 was not the result of hyperinflation, which at that time was ten years in the past; it was primarily a consequence of mass unemployment due to the recession in the early 1930s. /3
The Nazis had come to power after years of deflation - i.e. falling prices. From 1930 onwards, Reich Chancellor Brüning used emergency decrees to bring about tax increases and drastic state spending cuts that pierced the social safety net. /4
Austerity policies increased unemployment, led to social suffering and unrest. Hitler realised by the end of 1931 at the latest that Brüning's austerity policy would "help his party to victory and thus end the illusions of the present system." /5

https://t.co/yRN6hseciX
Analysis of data from four elections between 1930 and 1933 shows that voters in areas more affected by spending cuts and tax increases gave significantly more votes to the National Socialists, supporting Hitler’s rise./6

https://t.co/egyepHidIP
HW Sinn calls for "tighter budget constraints" against hyperinflation after Corona. Dangerous distortion: he does not say a word about the link between the negative effects of austerity policies in the early 1930s and Hitler's rise to power. /7
Representative survey: Only 1 in 25 Germans today still knows that the crisis at that time was characterised by deflation. Almost half of the respondents - like HW Sinn - mix mass unemployment and deflation with the hyperinflation ten years earlier./8

https://t.co/XyOaZ8FQVv
Incidentally, this misconception is much more common among well-educated and politically interested Germans. Those who are following the ECB’s monetary policy closely are more likely to draw the wrong lessons from history and to be misled by HW Sinn. /9
Even if one were to agree with Sinn that hyperinflation "prepared the breeding ground for the Nazis", his comparisons would remain problematic: why should the ECB’s monetary policy today lead to hyperinflation similar to the early 1920s? /10

https://t.co/bEhmTXKitX
The ECB is not directly financing governments, as the Reichsbank did back then. Even in Germany, inflation rates have been negative recently. Sinn remains unconcerned about deflation, stressing risks of hyperinflation, although previous inflation warning have not materialised /11
Misinterpretations of history can be momentous if they lead economic policy down the wrong track. To prevent this, prominent economists must not go unchallenged when they fuel such dangerous misconceptions. /end

More from Economy

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is analyzing damage due to COVID and projecting further severe consequences if current policies persist. They state “despite involving short term economic costs, lockdowns may lead to faster economic recovery by containing the virus”

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Note: This report doesn’t do a dynamic analysis that makes things much clearer, but it does a thoughtful statistical analysis based upon increasingly available data.

https://t.co/5Xmt8y7lCL

A few more quotes:

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“The analysis also finds that lockdowns are powerful instruments to reduce infections, especially when they are introduced early in a country’s epidemic and when they are sufficiently stringent.”

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“lockdowns become progressively more effective in reducing COVID-19 cases when they become sufficiently stringent. Mild lockdowns appear instead ineffective at curbing infections.”

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“The results suggest that to achieve a given reduction in infections, policymakers may want to opt for stringent lockdowns over a shorter period rather than prolonged mild lockdowns...

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