Talk:Mefo bill

Merge with MEFO

This page and "MEFO" look to be good candidates for merging. One quite subsumes the other, as issuing MEFO bills was just about all MEFO did. I plan to merge them just as soon as I've gained confidence in my technical ability to do so.

I also plan to add information from the German Wikipedia version of this subject, since I read German.--Joe 18:23, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

I'd say "go for it". I was going to cross-link the articles, but a merge sounds better. Peter Flass (talk) 22:47, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Interest Rate Limit?

The business about a legal limit on interest rates sounds highly suspicious. Hitler's government ruled by decree, and could have easily (and secretly, if desired) abolished or simply ignored any such law. I have never read that justification for MEFO bills in other sources. Dwcasper 05:36, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

I read way back (sorry, don't have the cite) that the MEFO bills were one way in which the Reichsbank could essentially "print the German recovery" since the Reichsbank was ordered to take the MEFO bills at a discount. Keep in mind my memory is very fuzzy on this. 142.58.113.147 17:47, 10 October 2008 (UTC)

The article also claims further along that the interest rates were only 4%, less than this limit anyway. So it's a bit confusing why the limit was even brought up in the first place or if the 4% claim was correct or not. 2600:1700:6530:2F00:7D0D:860:8A16:12F6 (talk) 15:23, 29 April 2025 (UTC)

Hey, I'd recommend looking at: Germany in the Interbellum: Camouflaging Sovereign Debt Mark De Broeck and Harold James.

"The government instead opted for a comprehensive conversion operation to bring down all long-term interest rates to a maximum of 4½ percent. Recognizing that the 4½ percent coupon fell short of prevailing market conditions, the government placed the loan with the publicly owned Union of Savings Banks and the Clearing Bank Association. Formally, the loan conversion was voluntary. Investors could refuse to participate and continue to receive the original higher interest rate. However, they could no longer trade nonconverted securities on the stock exchange or have them accepted as collateral by the Reichsbank. Investors also faced considerable political and social pressures to convert. In the end, very few refused to do so."

And in relation to the 4% MEFO claim:

Mefo bills circulated widely outside the Reichsbank among companies and financial institutions. They carried a government guarantee, had an attractive 4 percent interest rate, and could be discounted (and rediscounted).

Hope this helps! Koalabeargotnohair (talk) 15:04, 3 November 2025 (UTC)

Rearmament

where is there evidence of the intent that the bills were printed for the purposes of rearmament specifically? there are no citations but it is mentioned as the sole intent least three times. it seems to me that an economy in shambles would need new credit instruments irrespective of some alleged ulterior motive. --72.93.129.11 (talk) 03:06, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Expert attention

The article doesn't contain the greatest explanation as to what the operation of Mefo was. Having only briefly come across this as part of a History course, I think the article needs attention from someone in the know about German finance in the Thirties. 92.8.225.150 (talk) 14:04, 31 May 2011 (UTC)

Photo please!

It's very hard to find convincing proof that these financial instruments actually existed. France's 18th Century Assignats and Mandats are in museums and collectors hands. Billions in MEFO bills were drawn, but I can't find a single image. Same goes for the "Labor Treasury Certificates" that the Third Reich supposedly used to kick-started the economy. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.11.198.171 (talk) 03:35, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

--How exactly did this work?

it would be useful if the article explained how this works. It states that the government paid the suppliers in these bills. Did the suppliers pay their staff in these bills and the staff buy goods. Did these bills operate as normal money for normal household purchases? Or did the suppliers use them as collateral to get normal cash from real banks? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.9.0.18 (talk) 10:25, 9 December 2011 (UTC)

MEFO bills were, by decree, to be accepted at any German bank and were payable in RM with a discount %. So hypothetically you do a million RM deal for bullets, get paid 1.1M in MEFO bills and deposit the bill at a German bank and are paid 1M in RM, give or take. The bank can present the MEFO bill to the central bank and get the million it put out refunded and the central bank just prints up the money. But since it is a MEFO bill and not actual government debt, the transaction doesn't have to go on the government's books and so long as nobody looks at the books, the inflation is hidden from the public. The quantity and even existence of MEFO bills, I understand, was a state secret that was not revealed until after the war. TMLutas (talk) 18:40, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

"legal fraud"

I have removed the part of the lede where MEFO bills are called a "legal fraud" in accordance with the missing citations template. This claim seems to be WP:original research at best.

Requested move 20 February 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 02:33, 27 February 2026 (UTC)

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Mefo bills → Mefo bill – It should be singular, not plural. IdanST (talk) 11:49, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

• Support per WP:PLURAL. Tevildo (talk) 16:54, 20 February 2026 (UTC)
• Support per WP:PLURAL. Elrondil (talk) 20:12, 20 February 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.