Nazi kleptocracy

Throughout history, conquering leaders have been popular. It's not just la gloire, either: conquest is enriching -- at least, as long as it lasts.

In modern times the Nazis top off the list of plunderers, as is detailed in a forthcoming book, Hitler's Beneficiaries: Plunder, Racial War, and the Nazi Welfare State; Tyler Cowen comments:

. . . the Nazi regime lived off the resources it stole from conquered nations, forced labor, Jews, and refugees.

The magnitude of the theft was much larger than I had thought. In the fiscal year 1938-9, "Aryanization" increased government revenue by 9 percent. At its peak, Nazi theft was able to finance 70 percent of war revenues, noting that "war revenues" is a flow but the concept does not measure the real resource costs of fighting the war. . .

The good news, if you could call it that, is simply that the wartime Nazi regime was less stable than believed and it would have encountered very serious economic and military difficulties once the full plunder was extracted from abroad.

Small comfort indeed, but history does suggest that most conqueror nations do not adapt well once the conquests stop and the tribute is all spent.

Posted by David on October 4, 2006 9:17 AM