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Seems to me I read this same story 20 years ago, and every year since then. Of course we are always on the verge of a serious economic decline, and prosperity can never last. Resistance is futile, and nothing but misery lies ahead, as all indicators show. In fact, near as I can tell, the world has been sliding downhill since at least the time when Homer wrote the Iliad and had similar complaints.

Since you are willing to go back to classical times, perhaps you can remind us of a great power which ever prospered for many decades or centuries after debasing its currency and printing unlimited fiat money?

Le't see, Roman Denarius, French Assignat, German Mark.....

There must be at least ONE example of a great power which went this route, where it did not end in financial collapse?

perhaps you can remind us of a great power which ever prospered for many decades or centuries after debasing its currency and printing unlimited fiat money?

Well first of all, I didn't say anything about a great power prospering by printing fiat money, so I don't know where that came from. All I was saying is that I have heard constantly for 40 years how we are on the verge of collapse, and yet in the real world all around us prosperity continues to increase. Peoples lives in our country are significantly longer, healthier, easier and filled with more disposable income and leisure than they were a generation or two ago. There were plenty of people around in the sixties who claimed we were on the verge of economic collapse -- I remember ads in National Review when I was a kid for a book called "How You Can Profit From The Coming Depression." At some point I suppose the sky actually does fall, but so far the people who keep predicting it have a pretty lousy track record.