The global recession has cut into the retail business another way. World-wide shoplifting is on the rise..by about 6% (versus a normal increase of 1.5%)., says the Global Retail Theft Barometer. That’s putting a $115 billion dent in businesses.

The interesting angle here is that, besides the usual suspects, there’s an upswing in middle-class thieves who simply must have that bottle of wine or the Gucci bag that the economic downturn is denying them.

Here’s how the new crime-spree breaks down globally:

 “In terms of total losses, retailers in North America topped the charts at $46 billion, followed by Europe’s $44 billion and $17.9 billion in the Asia-Pacific region. In North America and Latin America, store owners and employees were the leading pilferers; in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, it was customers who were swiping the most loot.”

Now a good part of the theft is still by criminals who resell the stuff. But the middle-class folks who are doing it are not doing it to keep body and soul together. They’re doing it because they think the whole system is rotten from top to bottom and there’s no reason they shouldn’t get their piece of the pie too. Which is the thinking that drove the housing bubble, and before it the tech bubble.

But the more fundamental reason for the crime-wave lies elsewhere. People become de-moral-ized in every sense of the word when the ground on which they stand starts shifting.

“Whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast,” said Bob Dylan, little knowing at the time he had nailed the philosophy of the financial industry for the next several decades.

When goal-posts move, when rules are changed post-facto, when it’s clear that cronyism not competence is the way ahead – then, anything goes. This is the subject of  “Hyperinflation and Hyperreality”,  an excellent piece by Paul Cantor on Thomas Mann’s short story, “Disorder and Early Sorrow.” Its theme is the moral effect of one form of severe economic dislocation – hyperinflation.

Hyperinflation is not our problem now, but it might be wise to think about what it might entail ahead of time.