WEIMAR REVISITED: Belarus snaps up TVs, fridges as ruble plunges. “Belarus consumers are sweeping store shelves bare in a frantic attempt to spend their devalued rubles before prices of imported goods go even further through the roof in the cash-strapped former Soviet state. The central department store in the capital Minsk no longer has television sets or refrigerators in stock as people rush to spend their rubles on anything from appliances to fur coats to jewellery.”

UPDATE: Welcome to hyperinflation hell. “First look at the Belarus Ruble chart below: this is what always happens to every country that resolutely continues to live outside its means. Always. . . . The catalyst for the country’s imploding economy: socialism and price controls. Sound familiar?”