What can we learn from Athens?

The interesting thing about the Peloponnese War was how it started. On of the interesting parallels is that it started really with the Athens at its height and with a level of hubris that sent them down the road towards ruin. Perhaps they felt that they were superior. Couldn’t make any mistake. They knew better. And they ended up destroying their society as a result.  (Demetri Kofinas, financial commentator)

There was a play written shortly after the Peloponnese wars, about the worthlessness of the copper flecks and that are where their coinage at the time.

“The ancient gold are excellent in point of standard; they are assured the best of all moneys; they alone are well struck and give a pure ring; everywhere they obtain currency, both in Greece and in strange lands; yet we make no use of them and prefer those bad copper pieces quite recently issued and so wretchedly struck.” – The Frogs.

Written by Aristophanes in 405 B.C. Plays of the Greek Dramatists, page 344.

We go from gold and silver, very high value of money to a currency that has a face value. It is the first example in history that where war and great public works were being funded through deficit spending.

The Seven Stages of Empire.

Civilization goes through a series of a lengthy periods of time much like a pendulum, going back and forth from the quality money to quality currency, and back again to quality money.

According to Sir John Bagot Glubb (1976) in Fate of Empires and Search for Survival is that it always plays out in seven stages, where it had always ended with how gold always wins against debased currency.

Stage one – The Age of Pioneers (outburst)

A country starts out with good money which is either gold or silver or it is backed by gold or silver. This is the time where a major country started to rise and overwhelmed other neighboring country and the whole world. 

They are the pioneer of a rising kingdom. Fresh and motivated to achieve bigger things in the near future.

Stage two – The Age of Conquest

The development and advancement of the empire both economically and socially had turned them to take upon more burdens to themselves in the form of public works to accumulate more wealth.

Stage three – The Age of Commerce

As its economic affluence grows so does its political influence, and it increases expenditure to fund a massive army. Wars and battles were taking places, one country wanted more power, wealth and conquered more land. 

Gold rush began during this period of time, along with the discovery of 'black gold' or oil. Another valuable assets. 

Stage four – The Age of Affluence

Eventually it puts its military to use and expenditure explode. Taxes were being introduced to acquire more wealth. 

Stage five –The Age of Intellect

War requires a huge sum of money, thus forcing them to take away the wealth of the people by debasing their coinage with metals or replace the money with currency which can be created in an unlimited amount.

We are currently facing stage five of the empire. Notice how gold was no longer being used as an interchangeable value, instead, it was replaced with fiat money that has no intrinsic value.

Stage six – The Age of Decadence

Soon, people will lose their purchasing power and currency are no longer valuable due to expanded currency supply continuously produced by the government. This triggered a loss in the financial market and faith in the currency.

Money are no longer valuable, only regard as a piece of paper like what happened in Venezuela.

Stage seven – The Age of Decline and Collapse

A rise in the usage of precious metals and other tangible assets took place, leaving behind the currency units. Currency depreciate in value and collapse, causing the rise in the values of gold and silver due to the oversupply of currency.

The ones who benefits these are those who saw the true value of gold and silver, the real money instead of currency and chose to save in gold instead of currency.

Current State

The monetary system that we are practicing now is the one where we steal from the poor and middle class, transferring all wealth to the banks, as what was indicated in the Age of Intellect. Only a matter of time for the empire to fall towards stage six, the Age of Decadence. Repeating the same mistake in history.

What happened in the current world right now is basically the same thing that was happening in Greece, and the same had been happening back in 407 B.C. 

The deficit spending to fund all these public workers and the debasement of their currency supply caused them to become nothing but a satellite of Rome. Today, they’re becoming nothing but a satellite of banks.

References 

1) Sir John Glubb. (1976, 1977). The Fate of Empires and Search for Survival. Press of the Publisher. Scotland. http://people.uncw.edu/kozloffm/glubb.pdf

2) David Murren. (2016). 5 Phase Life Cycle. David Murren Global Forecaster. https://www.davidmurrin.co.uk/article/5-phase-life-cycle

3) Serge Bernard. (2015). The Fate of the USA Empire Life Cycle. https://astrologic.info/usa-empire/