While other European countries let their currencies fall against gold, Schacht, motivated by a combination of concern for prestige and fear of inflation, refused to break officially from gold and devalue the Reichsmark. German goods were overpriced on the world markets and its exports stagnated. In order to cope with the pressures created by this bloated exchange rate, an elaborate system of import controls was put in place and foreign trade was largely based on barter. Under this "Schachtian" system, Germany was reoriented from an open economy integrated with the West to a closed autarkic economy connected to Eastern Europe and the Balkans, a precursor of the inefficient Soviet trade system of the 1950S and 1960s.

Behind the gleaming achievements, therefore-the autobahns, the Volkswagen, the Junker bombers, and the Messerschmitt fighter planes ¬the Nazi economy was a rickety machine plagued by shortages and relying heavily on rationing to allocate scarce consumer goods.

Schacht, once such a strong believer in an open Germany integrated with the West, justified himself by arguing that he had been driven to the policy of hunkering down and looking inward by a deranged international system: "The whole modern world is crazy. The system of closed national boundaries is suicidal ... everybody here is crazy. And so am I. Five years ago I would have said it would be impossible to make me so crazy. But I am compelled to be crazy."

And in 2010, to quote the great Noddy Holder of Slade, “ Mana, Mama, we’re all crazy now!”
We don’t rule out rationing and protectionism in the coming years by any means; the stockpilers may yet be proven right.