For a really interesting, recent, first-person look at how hyperinflation in a country, check out this book:

There's some very interesting stories in it. One that really struck me was how ANY group (cricket club, alumni organization, church) became a survival mechanism, in that people that were trusted and connected traded together, and did favors for one another. Loners suffered.

Though possibly the loners, having fewer social ties, left the country early, and were the luckiest of the bunch.

An interesting aside here - I've read this book a couple times, and thought I'd get a few good stories from it, that I could include here, where my memory was a little fuzzy. So, I asked AI for some sample stories.

WOW does AI lie! All kinds of stories were presented, but not one of them came from the book. I would have thought AI could do this kind of thing easily, but no.