exacerbates inflation further. If there is any delay between the
accrual and payments of taxes, their real value erodes disastrously (2004 taxes paid
in 2005 wreaks havoc with the real value of tax collection). As inflation accelerates,
contracts or indexation lags shorten (to avoid real wages declining as inflation erodes
the purchasing power of the constant nominal payments), which causes inflation to
accelerate. Under extreme inflation, governments may abandon domestic currency
for foreign currency, as U.S. dollars in Russia, 1992–94. Doing this means the government
must continue to increase inflation to get any seigniorage. As economic
institutions collapse and wage contracts and financial asset maturities shrink, hyperinflation
becomes inevitable. The erosion of the real value of taxation, the shortening
of contracts, and financial adaptation to inflation all react perversely to widen the
deficit and accelerate the inflation rate explosively (Dornbusch 1993:18–24).