Killer Facts

I am about one-third through The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze. I may attempt to write a full review when I finish, but I just felt the need to register my approval at this early stage. This is an utterly engrossing and pretty damn scary piece of economic history, although because it’s been a few years since I tackled this sort of stuff, a brief refresher course in international economics might have come in handy before starting. No matter how many times I read about the balance of payments, the gold standard and currency devaluation, I keep having to rebuild the concept in my head from scratch so that I can figure out what exactly is going on. It says a lot about his book that I have been taking the time to read the same page 2 or 3 times in order to make sure I’m understanding things right.