"More"

Floyd Norris:

Americans are cutting back on purchases of things they do not have to have, sending retail sales down sharply at many types of stores. Those cutbacks, which now seem to be worse than at any time since the 1990-91 recession, are helping to slow the economy and to spur calls in Washington for more fiscal stimulus even before the government starts to send out money to most taxpayers next month. ... The Census Bureau reported a small increase in retail sales for March, with overall sales up 1.8 percent over the previous year. But much of that gain was caused by higher prices. Sales at gasoline stations soared almost 19 percent as prices climbed. In food and beverage stores, sales were up 4 percent from a year earlier. But spending more money on food and gasoline leaves less for other things, and sales were down, even without adjusting for inflation, at department stores, clothing stores and furniture stores, as well as at auto dealers.

If prices went up, people demanded not a stable purchasing power for the marks they had, but more marks to buy what they needed. More marks were printed, and more, and more.

-Adam Fergusson, When Money Dies