1/ Wow, what an essay, trying to distill thoughts from this masterpiece: https://t.co/bxR3cnNJrM
Hat tip: @NSKinsella
The essay is about inflation's effect on culture, through the analysis of a short story set in Weimar Germany. I've selected some quotes and will comment.
2/ "With all points of reference gone, the only law...appears to be perpetual change."
When money changes, everything else anchored on money starts to change as well. Prices being the most obvious one, but crucially, not the only one.
3/ "...if we seek an explanation for the dissolution of authority in the world he is portraying, we should look to the monetary madness of the Weimar Republic."
The insanity and disorder of society, in other words, can be traced back to monetary policy.
4/ "Everything threatens to become unreal once money ceases to be real."
Unreal, in this sense is counterfeit or fake. Societal attitudes become as fake as the money we use because it no longer just represents value provided, but also value fraudulently obtained.
5/ "By making money worthless, inflation threatens to undermine and dissolve all sense of value in a society."
Money helps us to know where we can expend our labor to best provide value. If our sense of value is skewed, we will no longer properly value our labor, time or energy.