![]() One of the fundamental rules of international law.Īlso "dare to try" motto of numerous schools. Ablative form of pax, "peace."Īlso "contracts must be honoured". Used to politely acknowledge someone with whom the speaker or writer disagrees or finds irrelevant to the main argument. This sort of caper means debasement."With all due respect to", "with due deference to", "by leave of", "no offence to", or "despite (with respect)". Gone are the days of the JH Bernanke bombs, but just in case it does get interesting… I’m on the lookout for any slight tilt towards the merits of MMT-style thinking, which is getting more and more airtime in academia and the media, or the role that ‘targeted’ fiscal expenditure and ‘structural reform’ could have to make the economic adjustment as ‘smooth’ as possible given where we are in the economic cycle. To be honest I’m not sure what’s more unsettling… the $17 trillion pile of negative yielding debt, or the Yellowstone Caldera - a super volcano so massive that it doesn’t erupt, it “super erupts”… and he’s smack bang in the middle of it. If he seems a little unnerved, it’s because he is. This year’s theme: “Challenges of Monetary Policy”. ![]() In a few hours we hear from Fed Chair Powell as he gives the opening remarks at Jackson Hole. Encumbered with too much debt and committed to a bloated military budget, the ruling elite turned to currency debasement in an attempt to inflate their way out of an untenable situation. The tale of a military powerhouse with sprawling influence across the globe. ![]() From the glory of the Republic to the beginning of its demise as a defunct imperial autocracy. It goes without saying, Caesar had an unlimited capacity to borrow, yet nothing in life is free! Visual Capitalist notes that if you were a Roman emperor in the third century - and there was a bunch of them - there was an 84% chance you’d be killed. The trade was to go into as much debt as possible and purchase real assets. ![]() Civil wars raged, cities were swept with plague and the economy spiraled into a depression amid rampant inflation. Things got a bit embarrassing as the third century progressed. Bitcoin is a commodity, and to be honest I doubt it will ever graduate to be a ‘currency’ in the pervasive sense. Thus, as myopic as the “digital gold” narrative may be, it does currently make the most sense. As long as there exist fiat currencies which are perceived to be dilution-prone, people will spend those instead. Incidentally this phenomenon also explains why Bitcoin is unlikely to be ubiquitous in everyday commerce anytime soon. Hardly fooled, Romans naturally hoarded their more valuable Denarii and spent the inferior denomination such that the Denarius effectively vanished from circulation. What could possibly go wrong? Indeed it proved to be an informative historical monetary shock illustrating the inevitability of Gresham’s Law - the claim that “bad money drives out good”. Caracalla had the bright idea of introducing the ‘Antoninianus’ - worth two Denarii but containing only 1.5x the silver content (coin #4). As you probably gathered from Gladiator, it was pretty much all down hill after Marcus Aurelius passed (Commodus’ father). If you look closely you can see his name imprinted on the upper right side of the coin. Below you can see the devaluation of Imperial Roman coinage kicked off by Nero in 64 AD.Ĭoin #3 is a Denarius of Commodus. To their credit, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius all eschewed such temptation.Īlas, all good things must come to an end. After the debasement from 4.5g to 3.9g around 200 BC, its purity was left unadulterated, somewhat remarkably, for over 260 years. It was a particularly robust store of value throughout the remainder of the Republic and early stages of the Empire. Weighing in at 4.5 grams with a silver content between 95–98%, the Denarius (literal meaning: “tenner”) served as the backbone of the Roman economy for centuries. A silver lining, so to speak.Įnter the ‘Denarius’ circa 211 BC. Fortunately, the sacking of Syracuse yielded a loot of silver so large that it effectively financed a huge monetary injection. War armories had an insatiable thirst for bronze, while flaky mercenaries on the outskirts of the Republic proved far more loyal if their salaries were paid in silver. Years of war had put an enormous strain on the Roman treasury. Although the fables are certainly entertaining, the Siege of Syracuse was a crucial victory for the Romans and highly consequential for the course of human history for another reason.
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