What A Failed Dollar Would Look Like

Think it can't happen here? Jason Lankow at the personal finance site Mint.com lays out the tales of nine failed currencies.

Included in the list are:

• Germany's Weimar Republic, which hit 325 million percent inflation.

• The Austrian Pengo, which traded at 400 octillion to the U.S. dollar. Yes, there is such a thing as an "octillion."

• Chile's very brief experimentation with the printing presses, ending violently in a military coup.

• The Argentine experience, which went on for decades and by some measure is still going on today.

• And similar blow-ups in Peru, Yugoslavia, Angola, Belarus, and Zimbabwe.

Interestingly, no mention of perennial inflation punchline Brazil, which has gotten its act together in recent years, even under a communist president. (You don't fool with what works seems to be the lesson there.)

Nor is there mention of the historic collapse of the British pound, perhaps the closest thing — aside from the early 1970s Chilean experience — to what Americans might face if the Fed keeps on printing new money hand over foot.

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