Part II Posted: Jim Rickards on the Collapse of Rome and America

This was fascinating - thank you Michael!

I like how Rickards praises Byzantium for its policies and suggests we should emulate them in order to last 1,000 years as well...

You know, anytime I want to characterize a basket-case state, Byzantium comes to mind. Nonstop wars, never-ending court intrigues, religious revolts, insanely high taxes, you name it!

Rickards must be talking about a 40 year high-water mark between Zeno and Justinian, perhaps. The next thousand years are a rot-fest.

The only reason Byzantium lasted as long as it did was due to its location. Even a dumpster state like the Ottomans lasted far beyond its natural grave was due to its location on the same land.

Put the Byzantines or Ottomans on any other land and they'd perish very quickly indeed.

America too is situated on prime real estate. That's why we'll last a thousand years. And like Byzantium and the Ottomans, world historians will say,

"In its youth, America was a vibrant nation of great wealth and power, with culture and justice. After the second century of its life, however, it matured into an old oligarchic empire engaged in nonstop wars, never-ending court intrigues, religious revolts, insanely high taxes... you name it."

Rickards is one of the few people willing to speak publicly about the troubling (if you live in the West) parallels between the Western world's current predicament and the collapse of the Roman Empire. Martin Armstrong provides a great discourse on the debasement of Roman coinage in one of his missives from prison, "How ALL Systems Can Collapse Overnight". Check it out:
http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/How-ALL-Systems-Can-Col...

I am listening to a I pod series from I Tunes on the history of Rom (free) and there are A LOT of similarities!

In the last few months it was reported that China was sent a ship load of gold bars which were supposed to be solid .999 fine. It turned out that the Chinese drilled holes in them to find that they were not solid, but were gold plated tungsten. They were returned to sender. I wonder if Fort Knox is loaded with these kind of fake bars. If Dr. Ron Paul can get the FED audited we will find out just what has happened to our gold confiscated by the F.D. Roosevelt administration on March 8, 1933.

I guess that's the prerogative you get when you run a website: the ability to determine what is and what is not important.

If only we could get the Alex Jones stuff into the "must not read" category, this site might become less embarrassing to the people outside of our little libertarian bubble.

how about fake coins so good that they cannot be identified.

Record number of fake £1 coins could force reissue
There are now so many fake £1 coins in circulation the Royal Mint could be forced to scrap all of the coins and reissue the entire denomination.
By Rosie Murray-West and Harry Wallop
Published: 6:00AM BST 27 Jul 2010

Their warning came as new figures indicated there were £41 million fake £1 coins in Britain – one in every 36 in circulation. This is a record level and suggests that the proportion of counterfeit coins had tripled in the last decade.

Experts said it was becoming increasingly difficult for shoppers in Britain to spot a fake. The only time they usually notice is when they are rejected by a parking meter or vending machine, which contain devices to monitor whether the metal composition of the coins are correct. However, at least half the fakes are now so good they pass these tests.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumert...

Thanks for posting this Michael.

Rome began taxing farmers to such an extent they decided it was unproductive to grow large crops and many only grew what they needed for their household. Then Rome began taxing them on what the COULD have grown and they abandoned their land. The barbarian armies were welcomed by the farmers because they figured anything had to be better than dictates from Rome.

Great term. I remember hearing Dr. Paul use it recently when referring to the oil companies moving their drilling to other non-meddling shores.

I did not know the specifics of Rome's devaluing of their currency. VERY INTERESTING history lesson.

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