Currency debasement, yes.
Also: unchecked immigration by people who did not share Roman cultural values. Cultural debasement was a big problem too.
BTTT
On the other hand, the Eastern Roman Empire lived on with varying degrees of success under Emperors such as Justinian and Basil. It lost its African and Middle Eastern provinces to Islam, but it maintained its strength in Asia Minor until it was further weakened by the Crusades and eventually fell to the Turks, 1000 years after the fall of the Western Empire.
” How was the newest war, thermae, palace, or circus to be paid for?”
Boy Howdy, that sorta sounds a little like Washington DC.
But we can all be assured that ‘our’ government would never debase our dollar like them old Romans did their denarius. Would they?
From: usinflationcalculator.com
If in 1913 I purchased an item for $1.00
then in 2023 that same item would cost: $30.49
Cumulative rate of inflation: 2948.8%
As the old song goes, We are Headin for the Last Roundup and fast.
Bureaucracy Kills: A Lesson from Rome
We can't say we weren't warned.
As I have read before, we are going through the exact same thing. Time to jettison everything and go live in another country. Better to be poor in Mexico than live with what his going to happen here.
p
"That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun." - Ecclesiastes 1:9
Reading Edward Gibbon's “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, he is clear about what happened to the economy.
To paraphrase, he said that there was not enough gold and silver (etc.) for the valuation of commodities. So, slaves became currency.
A person's wealth could be calculated based on the number of slaves he held.
ping
Sadly, there are other excellent examples since Rome....
-Spain
-British Empire
-Germany
All controlled the world -- until they didn't!
NEXT?