[listenhillary]

Fairly pessimistic I guess.

FTA "Once an empire has reached stage eight above, it never reverses. It is a “dead empire walking”

[Sans-Culotte]

Interesting.

[PGR88]

So at least we all agree that great nations fall and crash because of currency problems, caused by debt and money printing, leading to confiscatory taxes and stealing of wealth. yes?

So what institution in the USA is in printing money hand-over-fist? Monetizing government debt, allowing government to spend and grow FAR beyond its means? And what institution in the USA will therefore cause the decline of the USA?

Anyone?

Buhler?

[GraceG]

They forgot the “Bread and Circuses” phase in the empire falling...

[skeeter]

I believe we are well past #8 now.

BTW I'm fine with equating government bureaucrats with Eunuchs.

[RetiredArmy]

America is now a Dead Country Crawling. We are no longer walking or running. We are crawling to the death of a nation. America is like Rome. Dying of decay from within, for perversion, from corruption, sexual decadency, drugs, alcohol abuse, theft, murder, low life’s taking from the government treasury. America is a self inflicted wound. Festering in the afternoon sun. America as founded, as it grew to its greatest height, is gone. America is in the grave. Waiting for the Anti-christ to throw the dirt on top. America is no where in Bible prophesy. Thus America will not be in the end times. Only those nations mentioned in the Bible will be around, in leadership positions, to make the moves described in the Bible for the last days, right down to Armageddon. It is coming. Your only hope for getting out of this mess is through the offer of Grace from the LORD Jesus Christ. Would be wise to make that move today. You never know when the end will come. And, whether you believe it or not, whether you believe the Bible or not, whether you say it is just stories in a book or whatever, dudden matter. The Bible says it is going to happen and it will. The Bible has been right on target with everything that it predicted in prophesy. It will be spot on with these end time events. Bet on it.

[Little Ray]

Stage 8? Heck, we’re headed for stage 11 at breakneck speed!

[southernmann]

I imagine all those folks living in those empires and dynasties believed they were witnessing the end of things also, just as we are today.

Nothing ended, it just changed. As it is now, it was then.

[AllAmericanGirl44]

bkmk

[GeronL]

bump

[Billthedrill]

Paul Kennedy called this Imperial Overstretch in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, a thesis marred a little by timing - he published it in 1987 with dire predictions about U.S. overstretch, two years before the Soviet Union collapsed. That didn't really obviate the argument but it sure diluted it a bit.

The Assyrian empire followed the same pattern right before the Persians came along. The point is that whether an empire is supported by pure plunder, as the Assyrian, or taxation, as the Persian, there comes a time when you can neither fund it nor man the ramparts with the native population. Shrink, withdraw, or die. It can be managed - the Swedes did so after Gustavus Adolphus. That, however, appears to be an historical exception.

The United States is in a rather anomalous position, having inherited empire rather than formed it: the Spanish empire dropped the Philippines into our laps, the French, Vietnam, and the British? Well, the first British empire made us.

Climbing down from this without setting the world on fire is going to be the principal geopolitical and strategic challenge in our country's history. We see in Iraq what can happen if it isn't managed carefully. The question is, can the native strength of the country support a soft landing before it is squandered? The author of the piece is pessimistic. I'm leaning that direction myself.

[meadsjn]

11. In this final period, the empire turns on itself, treating its people as the enemy.

Are we there yet?