68 MODERN MONETARY SYSTEMS 
incomes and bondholders who are only entitled to a fixed 
nominal income, are entirely ruined. This may also happen 
to owners of house property whose rents are restricted 
by law. On the other hand, the value of shares, dividends 
on which vary with the price of commodities, often 
rises even more than prices and the rate of exchange. 
For instance, according to the Berliner Tageblats, the 
Stock Exchange index for shares showed on August 22nd, 
1923, a rise of 133,080%, in comparison with January 
3rd, whereas during the same period the dollar index had 
risen by only 70,607%,. Meanwhile the rate of interest 
on recent loans is increased owing to uncertainty as to 
the purchasing power of the currency at the time of 
redemption. In August 1923 interest was being paid in 
Germany on the money market and on the Stock Exchange 
at the rate of 1 to 139%, per diem.! 
With an accelerating depreciation, wage-earners no 
longer succeed in adjusting their earnings—in spite of 
continual increases—to the price movements; in the end 
wages are made subject to an automatic percentage in- 
crease varying with the cost of living index. But soon 
prices fluctuate so much that it is no longer possible to 
ascertain the real value of a fortnight’s or even of a week's 
wages from day to day or even from hour to hour. 
It is true that farmers, who market their produce, profit 
by the rise; but if they want to insure against loss they 
are obliged to purchase goods without delay equivalent 
in value to what they have sold. Except by obtaining 
foreign exchange saving is impossible in any form, as 
from one day to another money representing profit or 
savings may lose its former purchasing power. 
§ 8. Attempts to overcome difficulties due to unstable exchanges 
and prices in countries with heavily depreciated currencies. 
Such was the situation of Germany, particularly in 
1923. A whole series of attempts was made to overcome 
1 See article by M. Boislandry-Dubern in the financial chronicle of the 
Revue Economique Internationale of September 1923.