The West Virginian. [volume] (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1914-1974, 1922-10-05
BILLIONS LOST IN
GERMAN MARKS
Big Flood of Speculation in
Foreign Currency Report
ed to Have Stopped.

NEW YORK, Oct. 5.-Gambl.
ing in German marks has cost
Americans from a billion or two
billion dollars.
People are still buying marks
and other foreign paper money
but the big flood Of speculation
suddenly stopped a few weeks ago.
Bankers report that buying was
going on in large amounts in spite
OF their warnings that purchase
Of German marks was a specula-
ti9p and not sn Investment It Is
,belteYed that even TIE. widest
rspee plRtors have now reached THE
conclusion that the bubble has
burst, wiping out dreams OF i'm:
mense profits.
Estimates Of tho amount Of
American money spent for marks
can be better made in Germany
than In this country" said DR.. B.
NJ. Anderson, Jr., economist of the
Chase National Bank. 81 have
seen estimates ranging from 81
000,OO0,O00 to $4,000, 900. 900. Per.
sonally l wouldn't know how 10
guess.
Speculation in German marks
has been a big national loss, but
1t is SO diffuse that no credit prob.
lem has been created. I know of
no institution or individual suffer.
ing n serious loss.
1.-THE most serious thing about
It Is the decentralization Of Ger
many which the crash in mark
indicates, Decentralization in Ger
many is most serious Of course for
herr closer neIghbors-France
Great Britain, Holland, Belgium
and the Scandinavian countries
but 1t Is very serious for thu
United States also. Germany has
been one Of our ld,s+ customers
and prosperous Germany Is
needed to balance the worlds &C.
onomic llfe."
Doctor Anderson pointed out
that while Germany as a whole
has suffered very greatly in the
financial Generalization, a good
many individual German specula.
tors have piled up immense pro-
fits. Foreseeing the decline in tho
mark, they borrowed ms1ks on a
great scale and used them to buy
foreign currencles-dollars, steri-
ing, etc.-or to buy goods, COM
mon stock Of corporations, and
other things whose value would
not decline with the mark.
After the fall of the, mark these
SPECTATORS could sell a small part
of their purchases for enough
marks to pay back their debts, re-
tanning the greater part OF the
real values they had purchased.
Hugo SHINES is supposed to have
built up much Of hisgreat fortune
by this method.
Other countries have plunged
in German marks. Spain is said to
have put 1,000,000,000 peseta3
into marks by the end OF 1920.
AS recently as last week an Ital.
ian put $40 into German marks At
the rate Of z cents hundred, re.
ceivlng 100000 marks (Which be.
fore the war were worth $50,000).
AT the New York bank where he
bought them he was warned that
he might lose his $40.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, grinning.
"but may make a million"
A small New York hotel has q
bell boy, an elevator operator and
a doorman who own severul million
Polish marks, a million German
marks. and several hundred thou
sand French francs and Italian lire.
Meanwhile reports from Ger
many say that women there are
protecting their savings by putting
doubtful paper money into silk
Notwithstanding they can sell
laterl
How widespread American spec
ulation in German marks has be-
come Is indicated by a letter re-
ceived by New York bank from a
small banker In Texas asking
whether marks were a "gopd invest:
ment,. He was told they were 4
long shot gamble. !,