The Billionaire Sweepers

"The Billionaire Sweepers – The year a cup of coffee cost 41 quadrillion dollars" recounts the most extreme case of hyperinflation in human history: Hungary in 1946. We often think of Weimar Germany (1923) as the worst, but the Hungarian inflation was a million times faster. Prices doubled every 15 hours. Historian Victor Pengo chronicles the life of the "Pengő" currency. At the peak, the government issued a 100 Quintillion Pengő note. People would get paid in the morning and run to the market because by noon, their wages would be worthless. The book describes the surreal scenes of street sweepers pushing piles of discarded banknotes into the sewers because they were cheaper than toilet paper. "The Billionaire Sweepers" is a study in human resilience. It shows how a society continued to function through barter and black markets when money literally ceased to have meaning, until the government finally reset the system by introducing the Forint.