But the mark now went on the rampage. Soon after the beginning of the Ruhr War, the dollar shot to twenty thousand marks, rested there for a time, jumped to forty thousand, paused again, and then, with small periodic fluctuations, coursed through the ten thousands and then the hundred thousands. No one quite knew how it happened. Rubbing our eyes, we followed its progress like some astonishing natural phenomenon. It became the topic of the day. Then suddenly, looking around, we discovered that this phenomenon had devastated the fabric of our daily lives.
