Inflation ragin’ outta control

You think 6, 8, or 10 percent annual inflation
rates are bad? How would you like to live in a
country that experienced that rate of inflation
in a day? As I discuss in Chapter 4, too much
money in circulation chasing after too few
goods causes high rates of inflation.

reichsmarks. People had to cart around so
much currency that at times they needed
wheelbarrows to haul it! Ultimately, this inflationary burden was too much for the German
society, creating a social climate that fueled the
rise of the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler.

A government that runs amok with the nation’s
currency and money supply usually causes
excessive rates of inflation — dubbed hyperinflation. Over the decades and centuries, hyperinflation has wreaked havoc in more than a few
countries.

During the 1990s, a number of countries, especially many that made up the former U.S.S.R.
and others such as Brazil and Lithuania, got
themselves into a hyperinflationary mess with
inflation rates of several hundred percent per
year. In the mid-1980s, Bolivia’s yearly inflation
rate exceeded 10,000 percent.

What happened in Germany in the late 1910s
and early 1920s demonstrates how bad hyperinflation can get. Consider that during this time
period, prices increased nearly one-billionfold!
What cost 1 reichsmark (the German currency in those days) at the beginning of this
mess eventually cost nearly 1,000,000,000

Governments often try to slap on price controls
to prevent runaway inflation (President Richard
Nixon did this in the United States in the 1970s),
but the underground economy, known as the
black market, usually prevails.

If you don’t continually invest in your education, you risk losing your competitive edge. Your skills and perspectives can become dated and obsolete.
Although that doesn’t mean you should work 80 hours a week and never
do anything fun, it does mean that part of your “work” time should involve
upgrading your skills.
The best organizations are those that recognize the need for continual knowledge and invest in their workforce through training and career development.
Just remember to look at your own career objectives, which may not be the
same as your company’s.