Bank on it

One event in 2023 which the government and Bank of England will not want to draw attention to is the 100th anniversary of the peak of the Weimar inflation.

– The value of the German mark had already been plummeting in the early 1920s as the German government printed money to pay reparations to the victors of the Great War. But inflation was given a further boost in early 1923 as yet more money was printed in order to pay striking workers in the occupied Ruhr region. Between the beginning of 1923 and November of that year, prices rose a billionfold. Stabilisation was only achieved after the Weimar government issued new banknotes backed by mortgage securities, which in turn were backed by the price of gold. Inflation, strikes, demands for reparations. Surely it couldn’t all happen again…

Auld acquaintance

Other anniversaries in 2023:

50th  Three-day week; UK entry into the European Economic Community.

100th  Leaded petrol; Le Mans 24-hour race; first ice-cream van (in Youngstown, Ohio); Wembley stadium – or at least the history of a stadium on the Wembley site, as the original was demolished and rebuilt between 2000 and 2007.

200th  The Lancet; the game of rugby; the Oxford Union; opera glasses; army trousers (instead of breeches); first Brighton Pier.

Christmas past

What the forecasters and psychics said would happen in 2022:

– ‘First human/chimp hybrid born; Omega variant of Covid emerges and proves to be five times worse than any other’:     ‘Aesthetictimewarper’, who claims on TikTok to be visiting from the year 2714. 

– ‘Covid restrictions to be reimposed by the end of 2022’: Athina Bailey, psychic.

– ‘Bitcoin to reach $50,000 by end of 2022; Republicans to win back Senate’: Forbes.

– ‘Asteroid heads for Earth but is deflected by missiles; Keir Starmer replaced by female leader; Poland to leave EU’:     Nicolas Aujula, psychic.

– ‘Giant earthquake in Aegean; tsunami hits San Francisco; giant rabbits attack a town’:    Nikki, ‘psychic to the stars’.

Christmas future

Some things which should happen in 2023:

– It will be the Chinese Year of the Rabbit.

– Shepperton Studios should open its £500 million expanded premises.

– Luton airport should get a direct rail connection.

– The Covid public inquiry should begin.

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