Mr. Schlichter holds a degree in economics (Diplom-Ökonom) from Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany. He lives with his family in London.

“Detlev’s understanding and insight into central bank policy propelled him to being one of the world’s preeminent global bond managers. He cuts through the fog of central bank mystery by providing a clear description of their apparatus and methods. Going beyond the requisite professional skepticism, Detlev has trained his scholarly attention to highlighting the enormity of the potential further damage they may yet wreak on us.”
–KEN LEECH, former CIO, Western Asset Management Company

Paper Money Collapse

Paper Money Collapse provides a fundamental economic analysis of paper money systems in general, and our present system in particular. Paper money systems are monetary systems with a fully elastic money supply as opposed to commodity money systems with an essentially inelastic money supply, such as a proper gold standard. The book demonstrates that paper money systems are suboptimal, inherently unstable, and ultimately unsustainable. Although they can appear sound for long stretches of time, systems of elastic money inevitably accumulate imbalances that lead to economic disintegration and chaos. They are fundamentally incompatible with capitalism.

Historically, all paper money systems have ended in failure. Either a return to commodity money was achieved before a total currency catastrophe occurred, or the system ended in hyperinflation and economic disaster — with grave social consequences. Paper Money Collapse shows why this is the case, and why this is also the choice we are facing today.

“Schlichter’s book is a terrifying window into our future. Every academic, politician, banker, and opinion former should read it now.”
–STEVE BAKER, Member Of Parliament for Wycombe

Paper Money Collapse exposes the fallacies of modern macroeconomics and debunks erroneous conventional wisdom, such as that a growing economy needs a constantly expanding money supply; that a gold standard would lead to harmful deflation; that we can always ‘stimulate’ our economies with extra money and low interest rates; that the only negative effect of money creation is higher inflation, and that, when inflation is low, there is no problem with the injection of new money into the economy; that price level stability is identical with monetary and economic stability.

Paper Money Collapse shows that the present financial crisis can only be fully understood as the necessary consequence of decades of ongoing monetary expansion. Excessive levels of debt, weak banks and inflated and distorted asset prices globally are the inevitable result of constant money creation and artificially depressed interest rates, and symptomatic of the late stages of a disintegrating paper money system. The liquidation of these dislocations is now deemed politically unacceptable, and is therefore countered with ever more aggressive money injections and other market interventions. The present crisis is far from over. Complete currency catastrophe is now a distinct possibility.

“Detlev Schlichter’s new book is not an ‘easy read.’ Instead, it is an important read. It explains why the world’s dollar-based, post-1971 monetary system is not just inferior, it is unsustainable, unworkable, and unstable. It’s an ‘elastic’ money system. And before long, that elastic will snap, with very unhappy consequences for the many millions of people who depend on it.”
–BILL BONNER, bestselling author, FINANCIAL RECKONING DAY – the Coming Monetary Breakdown

You can read Detlev’s blog in The Schlichter Files. Please use the tags (bottom right) or search function (top right) to find articles you may be interested in.