The boom-slump-stabilization pattern that characterized the world economy in the early 1920s hit France in a peculiar way. By relying on German reparations to supply a large portion of their budget, when payments were not forthcoming, the resulting budget deficits had to be met with higher interest rates to attract capital. In such a situation a reasonable policy would have been to raise taxes, which is precisely where democracy and taxes came together to produce inflation.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 546