Vampire economy
"The Vampire Economy" (Günther Reimann's 1939 book) is the standard account of Nazi Germany as a totalitarian hellscape for business — and, in Infrared debate, a myth to be debunked when invoked to prove "fascism = anti-capitalism."
The debate moment
From the ACP WAR | THOMAS MASSIE LOSES stream, an opponent argued the Nazis "waged a crusade against global capitalism" and couldn't pay Wall Street:
> "This is the vampire economy myth. This is not true. This is something that was debunked... the Reichsmarks and the entire German military-industrial complex was based in debt, and the only way the debt could be paid off was from the resources plundered from Eastern Europe."
The substance
- The "anti-capitalist" reading of Nazism rests on the Feder-style anti-usury rhetoric and selective reading of Reimann's business complaints — while the actual regime: privatized state holdings (the 1930s term "reprivatization" was coined for Germany), guaranteed profits, crushed labor, and financed rearmament through debt instruments (Mefo bills) serviced by planned plunder.
- The Infrared line: Nazism was not anti-capitalism but capitalism in emergency command form — capital's command preserved, its risks socialized, its contradictions exported into war (Gottfried Feder, Robert Ley, Red-Fascism).