Currency Debasement and Social Collapse

Portrait of Nero who debased Roman currency

Mises.org
In a recent debate between Ron Paul and Paul Krugman, Dr. Paul said, "Professor Krugman indicates we just want to go back 100 years or so. That's not exactly true. We want to improve on what life was like back then. But he wants to go back 1,000 years or 2,000 years, just as the Romans and the Greeks … debased their currency."

In Human Action, Ludwig von Mises explained how currency debasement contributed to the fall of the classical civilization of antiquity. Knowledge of the effects of government interference with market prices makes us comprehend the economic causes of a momentous historical event, the decline of ancient civilization.

It may be left undecided whether or not it is correct to call the economic organization of the Roman Empire capitalism. At any rate it is certain that the Roman Empire in the 2nd century, the age of the Antonines, the "good" emperors, had reached a high stage of the social division of labor and of interregional commerce. Several metropolitan centers, a considerable number of middle-sized towns, and many small towns were the seats of a refined civilization.

The interference of the authorities upset the adjustment of supply to the rising demand. The showdown came when in the political troubles of the 3rd and 4th centuries the emperors resorted to currency debasement. With the system of maximum prices, the practice of debasement completely paralyzed both the production and the marketing of the vital foodstuffs and disintegrated society's economic organization. The more eagerness the authorities displayed in enforcing the maximum prices, the more desperate became the conditions of the urban masses dependent on the purchase of food. More...

G7 Banana Republics On the Road to Zimbabwe!

The global financial cataclysm is mushrooming with every stroke of the keyboard at a central bank, with the issuance of new debt to cover old debt, and with the illusion of creating money out of thin air. It is all debt, nothing else, with no final settlement…. EVER. You exchange the money you work for and save and buy a government bond; they print the money to pay you back and PRETEND you have been paid. The situation is just as Von Mises outlined:

“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as result of a voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved” -Ludwig Von Mises

The LEADERS of the developed world have chosen the latter route. This is a currency and financial-system extinction event, make no mistake. Only the zigs and zags on the path to that destination are UNKNOWN. We’re seeing the most powerful forces on the planet aligned against each other: King Kong (Mother Nature and Darwin) versus Godzilla (public servants, banksters, elites and crony capitalists). Read more...