Rhyming History: France's First Hyperinflation

John Law...remember that name

Back in the 1700s, France was ruled by a small group of inbred idiot aristocrats who started a series of ruinously expensive wars (see, history is rhyming already). As the bills came due, there wasn’t enough gold to pay creditors, and the government faced that era’s version of bankruptcy.

Then along came a Scottish economist/con man named John Law, who …