Life-long savings lose their value in a matter of days. Individuals desperately try to juggle their assets just to maintain their savings. Trade becomes more difficult or even impossible, through normal channels of exchange. Finally, the social division of labor itself is threatened with collapse as monetary transactions become the avenue for economic losses rather than profits. Hyperinflatiom continued to the bitter end, means the end of the social and economic order.
Brazil is on the edge of hyperinflation.
Last October, I had the opportunity to lecture in five Brazilian cities, including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. My invitation to deliver these lectures came from the Instituto Liberal, a non-profit, educational organization devoted to the principles of limited, constitutional government economic freedom, and civil liberties. The Institute has branches in all of the major cities of the country. It is supported by a small but dedicated group of Brazilian intellectuals and businessmen who strongly believe in the principles of a free society. The environment in which these people advance the principles of freedom can only be described as economic and political chaos.