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Guest Post: Decline And Fall Of The New Rome
Submitted by Luke Eastwood
Decline And Fall Of The New Rome
Rampant inflation, caused by debasement of the currency, government corruption and nanny state corrective action that makes matters worse. Declining trade, caused by wars to control the empire, massive military over-reach and ever increasing spending on the military – funded by increases in taxation on the citizens, especially those least in a position to pay.
Sounds familiar? The above, paragraph describes not our present day society but that of the Roman Empire from the 3rd century onwards. However, one could be forgiven for thinking I was describing the faltering western economies of America, Japan and Europe.
The similarities between the declining ancient Roman empire and current Western empire are quite striking. Not only are the same mistakes being made by our rulers, but the symbolism and structure of our governments differs remarkably little from that of Rome. Just take a look at the White House, the US Senate building, the Bank of England etc – it’s no coincidence that they are all built in the Roman style.
Just as the Romans debased their silver denarius from 95% in the time of Augustus, by the end of the empire it was as low as 0.2% silver. Right now western governments are involved in a devaluation war, which ultimately will lead to hyper-inflation – just as it did throughout the Roman empire.
Attempts to sure-up the economy of the empire all failed – e.g. reforms by Constantine and Diocletian failed, just as the inept efforts of our current political class are failing pitifully.
For those that could afford gold coins instead of dealing in token coinage (i.e. debased silver coins) they had real buying power and the ability to fulfil their imperial tax obligations. Unfortunately the poorer citizens were often unable to pay their taxes, due to rampant inflation, which meant they had to forfeit their property instead.
Of course as the costs of running a huge military to control a vast and unruly empire increased so too did the taxes. Over time huge numbers became delinquents or just simply disappeared and even the once wealthy classes became severely pressured.
Finally, only the genuinely rich and those employed by the government, such as soldiers and bureaucrats had any real spending power – the vast mass of the population became increasingly hard pressed and the fabric of the empire began to break apart.
Does that ring any bells? Of course, in this current climate of political indifference and incompetence it is the ordinary taxpaying citizens of Europe, Japan and America that are paying for big government, a corrupt and insulated financial sector and especially the imperial overreach of the (supposedly) ex-imperial powers within NATO.
Just as Rome did not collapse overnight, the American/Japanese/European axis is not collapsing overnight. However, what is clear is that history is repeating itself – the Western economies are doomed to fail if they are not radically reformed.
Just like in Rome, corruption in all of these governments is endemic and expecting reform is rather like expecting a judge to order his own execution for obstruction of justice. So what we can expect is a gradual and inexorable decline and fall; the only real matter for discussion is how long will it take this time around?

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Same as it ever was.
Look where my invisible hand was.
On that important epic tragic decline, the 6-volume set by Gibbons is authoritative and fascinating, even though it was written over 200 years ago.
Obama = Alexander Severus (well-meaning and clueless)
Bush II = Arcadius (dominated by his ministers)
...
Obama is anything but well meaning and clueless.
Maybe. But he's still just a marionette, not the puppet-master.
Lamentably though, we have no Cicero equivalent.
Ron Paul may come the close.
The result of 100 years of fiat currency becomes increasingly clear now.
Just like the fall of Rome was blamed on lead in the water pipes, we'll probably blame this on 'greed', or derivatives, or global warming er, climate change, etc.
Hell, let's blame it on capitalism and the market economy. Now, only collectivism for the masses with oligarchs owning all of the key assets can work.
The Court pimps or historitutes (credit Celente) are busy spinning up the "official version" as we speak. Cue Richard Norton Smith (the more middle names the greater the cred, right?) We are all Antony Sutton now!
Cue Niall Ferguson. Ready and at your service to write any version so wished.
Right, Obama isn't the maestro but he's not dumb. He's a much more capable puppet than George Bush and he keeps the liberal end of the sheep population in a trance.
Which is a growing minority (majority?). Free Shit Army.
Obama and Biden think they are riding on a stubborn and recalcitrant mule that just needs to be goaded and whipped to get to its destination.
They are starting to realize that they are glued into the saddle on an 800 lb. tiger that is waking up.
What we are currently seeing with Biden and Obama is a version of Blazing Saddles, unless there is meaninglful reform and ridding of the yolk of central banking, next comes a combination of Red Dawn, No Country for Old Men, Lord of the Rings, and Altas Shrugged. Might be decades.
If it is 4 decades I may just make it to my nineties - and frankly not give a damn!
If you make it through the intervening decades.
We are slipping and being pushed into chaos.
@esprit:
In California (and several other states as well), they are not a "minority," growing or otherwise. They are a clear majority; specifically, in California, for example (which is only third worst or so), there are 139 .gov.union and welfare types for every 100 in the private sector.
And remember ... democracy is 139 wolves and 100 sheep voting on what to have for dinner.
He's Mr step and fetch it for the banksters. The front guy so all those guilty white people in Amerika can feel better about themselves for voting in a worthless sack of shit.
Obama is like ALL US politicians, i.e. dependant on the large funders who = 0.05% of the population.
Unless a politician gets the money from the funders they have little chance of being on the ballot and almost no chance of being elected.
We need the politicians to be dependant on the people alone = a representative democracy, not large contributors who will influence/corrupt the politicians.
If we are playing to mirror the actual historical timeline I would ammend my previous post below to reflect-
Bubba wears Caligula's crown (and Hillary gets a supporting role as Incitatus in the Senate)
W gets to play Commodus
Hussein gets crowned Caracalla
debasers all around...
The Roman State/Empire was around for about 900 years. We have been around as an independent entity about 250 years. The more appropriate parralel would be end of the Republic. Hail Ceasar!!
Well said! If you consider the Eastern Roman empire in Constantine, the Roman empire existed for more than 1500 yeas, the US empire its around really, for 200 years and so going down hill already. The US is not the New Roman empire, will never be even close. It's just another human experiment, just like FIAT money.
it depends on whether you base your countdown on the individual countries who have held the temporary mantle of western leadership, or start it at the beginning of fractional reserve/central banking oligarchy gaining control of the nation states.
+1 which means that it's not one empire, more a web of multiple ones - for example a financial and a commercial one, one centered on oil and another centered on media, etc. etc.
" The more appropriate parralel would be end of the Republic."
No. It was Lincoln (America's Caesar) that finished off the Republic and set the stage for empire. It's later than you think.
Quite so, I am amazed at the number of idiots out there who will sing Lincoln's praises one minute and scream about the growth of the government in the next. Anyone who likes Lincoln should love what our government has grown into, it is the logical result of ol' Honest Ape.
The Republic as it was founded died a century and a half ago amid mass land confiscation, theft, murder, rape, and pillage.
+1.
That's "parallel".
I tend to lean into Toffler's view (cf. *Future Shock*), re. the wide perceptual -- social, cultural, political, et al. -- "speeding up" of time. I submit that from the early days of oil extraction, say mid-19th Century, the world and its inhabitants have experienced a transformation *greater* than that of generations of ancients over millennia.
Is fifteen hundred years ending a thousand years ago the societal equivalent of a couple hundred years bringing us to April 2013?
What would Einstein say? A lifespan is a lifespan?
.
does the empire split in a western and eastern part?
North-South is the traditional US fetish, and it seems to be picking up popularity across the pond...
Reid = Comodius.
Gibbons Volume IV:
"Every law, either human or divine, was trampled under foot; and as long as the party was successful, its deluded followers appeared careless of private distress or public calamity."
+ 1000
+1001
2 Timothy - The Dangers of the Last Days.
And for those who don't have access to Harvard's library, with its books that are centuries old, google DOES have access:
http://books.google.com/books/pdf/The_History_of_the_Decline_and_Fall_of...
it says AbeBooks. nuff said.
Dunno where your's was, but the Bernank has his on CTRL-P.
Think Caligula with infinite electronic 'money' power.
When the masses no longer believe it is MONEY, gulp real hard.
I see AG and BB more as Neros than Caligulas. they have been burning the place to the ground, fidling away while doing so and scapegoating others for their own deeds.
debt matters
ROME: Bread and Circuses.
US: Food Stamps and Cable TV.
you could add gladiators and American athletes.
I could add Gladiators, but then when do you stop?
I didn't want the post to turn into this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExWfh6sGyso
How about this guy then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles and of course "he was tasked with the impossible" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labours_of_Hercules to me this is one of the Greatest Stories Ever Told. "with everyone watching" of course.
That's all Greek to me...
Latin, it's all Latin....
I would have thought Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty.
Gladiators fought for their lives, not millions. What we have are pussified men that are well paid.
Gladiators fought for their lives, not millions. What we have are pussified men that are well paid.
"Gladiators fought for their lives, not millions. What we have are pussified men that are well paid."
The most successful gladiators became wealthy and famous. Same goes for the charioteers.
Arena sports today serve the same ends: distract the lower orders and channel their energies into activities that aren't threatening to the establishment/status quo.
I was going to say SNAP and NASCAR.
DHS = Praetorian Guard
Bush, Clinton, Obama = Caesors
Welfare = bread & circus'
Comparisons go on & on,this was a terrific article. My hope is that a new Jesus, and new way of life that comes out calamity and Armageddon. It may take thousands more years but humanity is destined to rejoin with spirituality.
Not really. This is s plan! Controlled collapse to "One Worldiness", with our gang at the top.
You don't really think they offshored everything in order to "keep America strong" now do you.
"This is s plan!"
Is that like "Plan S From Outer Space?"
Oh, yes I do. Obviously I have way more trust in Hanlon's Razor than you do ...
So how many Roman emperors were whacked by the Praetorian Guard, and when is the Praetorian Guard going to cut their losses on the current Caligula-wanna-be and his Marie Antoine-like heffer Incitatus?
Ask JFK about that one.........
When the check bounces...
See Portugal.
Secret Service reports to Secy. Treasury
The biggest difference compared to Roman empire is the fact we have computers, the fall will be quicker and more devastating.
Good overview of what brought down the Roman Empire - war, inflation, taxes
http://media.mises.org/mp3/MoneyandGovernment84/01_1984_Peden.mp3
I read this yesterday.....and the day before that....and the day before.....
I prefer directions on how to paddle, not descriptions of the water.
Ideally one exits the water at some point as far upstream from the waterfall as possible as paddling of any kind quickly becomes futile.
Futile? We are in a wire canoe!
"I prefer directions on how to paddle, not descriptions of the water"
~~~
How you paddle depends on the water... But you're so clever I imagine you already thought of that...
Spread your wealth .& intellectual energy outside of Rome ... The smart rats get off the ship....
There is no longer any place to run to. It's global governance this time baby. Chipped and programmed or if not that, removed as a useless eater.
You could just declare that there is one god and Mohammed is his prophet, make your wife wear a burkha and have lots of babies. Then your kids could be the barbarians at the gates.
Agreed! Getting debt free, resurrecting a more sustainable, lower consumption lifestyle as disconnected from the leviathan of government and banking over-reach is in order!
DaddyO
The weapons trade might be a good investment - long barbarians.
I agree.
.22 Long Rifle ammo has provided stunning returns
I found some here - www.fortresstacticaldefense.com
DaddyO
In those times i prefer directions on how to Xcute:
1- Swiftly
2- Precisely
3- Mightly
- exactly what you'll never get ...
no need to paddle, just tip the canoe over.
Sunshine Lollipops,and Rainbows everywhere,and everything is Beautiful,and Im so Happy!
Not!
Let loose the Dogs of War!
By boycotting the Fortune 500, we can hasten the collapse
You can't!!!
the system will collapse on it's own weight... and IT CAN NOT BE FIXED.
enjoy it while it lasts.....
Too late, already.
It died in 2008.
Dr Bernankenstein is merely shocking the brain dead corpse with QE
to restart the heart.
Watch out for the final bowel evacuation prior to burial.
When you hear Joe Biden saying "New World Order" you know it is time to pack up and head to N. Dakota.
I already heard Dickwad Cheney say it, and then he headed to Wyoming.
*slip
The Roman senate began ceding authority to the emperor in an attempt to escape accountability... A corollary to modern times... the recent discovery of the wonders of homosexuality... the mass attraction to vicarious violence and perversion... the general debasement of the masses and the debauchery of an elite class... This is always the path of cheap money and empire... And there is no going back...only...
Forward!
"Let us cavort like the Greeks of old. You know the ones I mean."
Moarward!
FIFY
Oh come on, this time is different. History is linear, not cyclical! Sarc off.
An Empire can debase metals! How can this be!
/sarc
Well, most Empires. These are not the metals you are looking for?
hmmm.... that didn't seem to work. Perhaps if I performed some sort of Jedi mind meld....
As I already said: These are X155CrVMo12-1 and S235JRG. If you don't want those, all the better ...
All your debase are belong to us
doesn't matter because we got something the ancient romans didn't:
. . . iPhones and internet porn.
But they got to watch people fight lions.
It is fixable, but not with an African communist in the whitehouse and a corrupt Congress of lifetime looters born into privledge. Two cultures that exist to suck the life out of the working class, with no experience of working or creating, are never going to come up with anything useful.
i don't think it's fixable anymore. the empire is a beast on its own, has its own momentum and will run down the course of former decadent empires. any opposition will be crushed and pushed aside. the forces involved are just too big. do not think that it is just the ruling class that's rushing to the event horizon. the plebs do their best to accelerate the rot. observe how obama supporters neglect the ongoing increase in debt and the deterioration in living standards.
Interesting how the right and left wing act exactly the same when in power.
"I read this yesterday.....and the day before that....and the day before.....
I prefer directions on how to paddle, not descriptions of the water."
Does it matter if you know how to paddle, if you are mere yards from going over Niagara Falls?
In fact he gave you directions- "Finally, only the genuinely rich and those employed by the government, such as soldiers and bureaucrats had any real spending power"
Long term, yes. Short term, no.
It's intimidating. I don't think I remember a time where the sentiment going from here was so incredibly negative at ZH. Tyler(s) are putting out this vibe of almost.....resignation, capitulation, and ...... immediacy.
I figured we had probably 1-2 years before they called the code and notified the coroner. But, ............damn, ....... I guess they've been doing CPR since '08 and it only makes sense. At some point you bow to the inevitable.
I'm starting to think this is going to happen soon. Good luck friends.
If you know how to work and have any skills at all, you can survive, even thrive in a shrinking economy.
If you depend on SNAP cards or sell "blue sky and sunshine" financial toilet paper (used only one side), then your options will be limited.
If I lend you $100,000 dollars, you lend it to your brother-in-law, and he lends it back to me, have we increased our GDP and wealth by $100,000? Well, that is Central Banking.
Best to find a cave in BFE and hunker down until you either hear the all clear or 10 years passes, whichever comes first. It's going to be a long dark and stormy night
TEOTWAWKI is back and wearing the latest spring fashions. Be trendy, be cool and be hip while wearing the new drone-proof hoodies, Liberty caps with energy efficient Infra-red LEDs, and ghillie suits fashioned from Fair Trade leaves and twigs. The latest in backpacks feature earthtone colors and steel and ceramic plates for that feeling of invulnerability as you run away, er, tactically retreat from well equipped UN rifle squads, but you'll look great doing it.
The Decline and Fall of the NWO and the Rise of BitCoin. Going Up.
High:$159.00000
what you gonna do with your bitcoin digits if one day mtgox goes permanently offline ?
159 was so one hour ago.
Try 161.
This is NOT the roman empire going down. Did those stoneagers have nearly enough horsepowers? Of course not. We, on the other hand ...
I mean, think Thunderdome and stuff ...
And the piece de resistance? In the cost of a basic legionaire's kit cost the same in gold back then as it would today.
Who was it said the US was the first great empire to go straight from barbarism to decadence with no period of high culture in between?
whaddaya'z mean no culture???
we'z gots Hollywood & Jay Z, baeeeebeeee!
I've seen better culture in a tub of yogurt.
JOHN COLTRANE BITCHEZ!!!
I think you meant "shore up" not "sure up."
Just finished reading a book by Simon Baker entitled "Ancient Rome: the rise and fall of an Empire." It made for fascinating reading and illustrates how a war (literally or economically or both) can stretch an empire leading to its eventual collapse.
The problem? Man loves to speak of history yet carries on regardless paying no heed.
Read "Lords of Finance" the story of the 30's crash. Great read but it was like reading headlines from 2008 onwards. The parallels were scary but again, we've repeated history...
May I suggest additional reading:
-Arms and insecurity
-Statistics of deadly quarrels
both by Lewis Fry Richardson
Give Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast series, "The Death Throes of the Roman Republic" a shot, it's free on iTunes.....
Jared Diamond's books has all we need to know about the end of energy subsidies leading to cultural collapse: cedars of Lebanon in per-Phaoroanic era to right now...
All true, but it has a much more basic reason: energy flows.
The Roman Empire was built on conquest, the main investment was conquest and the loot was the energy surplus that allowed the empire to flourish.
Today fossil fuels are the main energy flow and they will decide what happens to everyone. We do not just have a western civilization anymore, it is a global civilization.
Read: Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter.
Our entire food production system is build on access to cheap energy. I found this disturbing fact a few days ago: "10 calories of fossil fuel goes into the production of each calorie of food." (http://mdbriefing.com/food.shtml)
Roman Empire failed when it has run out of silver mines
Today we run on electronic money which can be put into existence by a press of a button.
"Today we run on electronic money which can be put into existence by a press of a button."
We run on faith. Electronic money can be infinite supply. Faith not so much.
Right now western governments are involved in a devaluation war, which ultimately will lead to hyper-inflation
I am not so sure anymore that hyper-inflation, or the complete collapse of the currency, is necessary for societal destruction to occur. Hyper-inflation may occur, but it is not necessary. Furthermore, Bennie etal know about hyper-inflation, and they will do everything to prevent it as they know their financial house of cards collapses if this occurs … and they face the wrath of the masses.
But they do want some inflation as they think in terms of economic velocity, they want people to borrow and spend etc to move the needle on the economic activity. Hence why we hear about “jump-starting” the economy.
They play a dangerous game, the idea that they can somehow control the amount of inflation is more than a bit arrogant, once the inflation genie is out of the bottle, anything goes.
So the destruction of the West (including Japan) could be based upon the pernicious effects of inflation, a declining societal purpose, political corruption, the blame game, food, oil and other base commodities priced beyond the means of most and a complete erosion of wealth for the middle class leading the culture to bifurcation, rich and poor only. A replay of post revolution France if you will.
Inflation is the great Satan, he is laughing that our leaders have chosen this path. Satan knows where this leads and it is not pretty.
sschu
Keep stacking
This article fails to highlight one crucial aspect of the cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire; that being the collapse of the family unit and morals in general. As their decadence, blood lust, and perversion grew, it only hastened the oncoming collapse.
Sound familiar?
Agree. Many of our financial ills, especially the welfare societal can be traced to cultural issues, especially the collapse of the traditional family unit.
Read Cashill's book on California.
These issues are very difficult to fix, especially when there are so many vested interests in NOT fixing them.
sschu
I presume this means you would like to get back to the concept that the male head of the household could legally kill his wife and children, if he so chose? Oh, and those slaves, as well?
I'll be more direct: Fuck your paternalistic bullshit.
In the western world, killing your wife/ child has been severely punished for hundreds of years and killing of your slave since 1865 in America. I'm not sure the comment was meant to go back thousands of years.
Which Paternalistic society are you considering?
Yeah, I agree with you, F any "paternalistic" BS that allows wife/ child/ slave killing.....gladiator fighting also.
Many Americans refuse to face the damage from the assault on America's culture: illegal immigration, dual citizenship, amnesty for multimillions, multiculturalism including bilingual education and preference for differing ethnic values and lifestyles, internationalism and criticism of the Founders as rich white men as well as denigration of their faith…
Ironically, these developments correspond with the cultural changes that weakened and eventually caused the decline of the Roman Empire.
Likewise, the Emperor Severus was not from the original Roman culture; he was from a conquered province, the old Phoenician town of Leptis Magna; he spoke Latin with a Punic accent and his sympathies were with the provinces. He even allowed Punic and Celtic terms in legal documents and in the Gaul and Rhine provinces a Celtic measure of mileage replaced Latin on markers on newly repaired roads.
A majority of top officials under Severus were provincials from the East and from Africa. As well as former emperors, he granted the right of citizenship to more and more areas of the provinces. His successor, Caracalla, in 212 A.D. made an even more radical citizenship move: granting all free men throughout the Empire Roman citizenship. As the biographer Dio explains, he wanted to include aliens on Rome’s tax rolls “to increase his revenues.”
In short, these emperors watered down and poisoned the discipline that was the culture of Rome; in the end, they wiped it out.
Your thinking Joe Biden here, aren't you?
I watched "Spartacus" on Starz once and couldn't help but think about the similarities between the ancient Roman empire and the current state of the U.S.
Rome had its arenas filled with spectators watching their gladiators. We have obese people sitting on the couch watching football all weekend from Sept-Feb. Rome had its orgies - we have internet porn. Rome debased its currency and well, we know what is happening now.
The only question is what we would name Bernanke's character:
"Printicus" or "ZIRPicus?"
How about "Economicus Erroneus"
The Roman decline, all explained in detail
http://alejandrorubinstein.com/?p=1258
The Roman decline spanned many centuries but in Bernanke’s fast track world every Monday is like a new chapter in Gibbon’s book with unbelievable heights of debt, currency debasement, trillions for war, widespread decline in the culture, and with most all economic indexes dropping like death charges.
Not only do the Roman economic abuses and declines mirror the American Empire but the cultural mistakes and abuses of the people fit the mode as well.
Following Rome’s extensive wars, Marcus Aurelius devalued the currency 25%; successor Severus devalued the money another 25% while raising existing taxes and devising new ones. Severus’ political enemies or those who contributed too slowly to his campaigns had their property confiscated for the “good of Rome.” The decline increased as higher taxes led to a decline in revenue as income fell.
Severus relaxed restrictions on the army, granting soldiers such privileges as wearing gold rings (the insignia of equestrians), permission to live with their wives (the old Legions considered this poor military discipline), and the army began to convert its money into luxurious living.
Following Severus’ death, his sons and relatives ruled for the next 24 years (Severus died in 211 A.D.; the first Caracalla increased army pay another 50%, debased the currency again and raised taxes, and increased the bounties paid to barbarian chieftains to keep them from attacking weak points along the frontiers. These bounties then began to equal the army’s entire payroll.
The rapid decline then brought Maximinus to power and a strengthening again of an emperor’s tyranny and the overturning of moral values and a tsunami of corruption.
The sacking of Rome in 410 is seen as a major landmark in the fall of the Roman Empire. She fell in 476.
But it is a mistake to think that the American Empire will decline slowly like Rome's or that Americans will respond as they did over decades of British rule. Rather, it will be fast and swift and the reaction will be fast and swift. It's plausible it may arrive without warning. Simon Black said it today: It’s the punch that you don’t see coming which knocks you out.
"Severus’ political enemies or those who contributed too slowly to his campaigns had their property confiscated for the “good of Rome.”
For the good of Rome...there's a lot of this type of thinking going around these days too...especially from the likes of Paulinius Krugmanus.
Paulinius Krugmanus? Is that any relation to Piltdown Man? ...declared the missing link before found to be a human skull sanded with an ape jaw bone fitted to it?
No. No. Couldn’t be! Piltdown Man was a hoax.
Paulinius Krugmanus. I can hear him shouting from the Emperor's box in the Colosseum, "Blood, I tell ya, we need more blood !"
Ah, Kayman, from whence came The Red Shield's rallying tribal cry: “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets!”
today it's "for the good of homeland".
And surely was it not the stately Roman in the Bard's Hamlet,
our dearest Polonius who advised us all;
"neither a borrower nor lender be, for oft' both friend and loan are lost."?
Tell that to the FED and their crony bankers!
Getting killed by a sword wielding guy in a dress must be the lowest of lows...
The more I think about it, the more the logical outcome of the situation is a New Dark Age with totalitarian/heavy control governments everywhere. However the only silver lining I see is just like in Azimov's novel there is a second foundation being set up and that is the Internet, which will allow to shorten that period of decay by keeping intact the seeds of a free society. The jury is still out as to where the first foundation is though. I'm looking for Terminus but have not found it yet.
The Internet can and will disappear when the SHTF.
I put my comment in the wrong place.
I done that more than a few times.
It's all about using "models" to lie and control. Take a look at what insurers are doing to CMS with putting their pricing on government shopping websites, as it is so complex that the inspector general and CMS are somewhat duking it out wiht each other, thinking they could do a better job, when in fact it is the insurance business causing this. Hopefully they will wake up. This is just one example on how manipulation by the models and algorithms works. It's happening all over the place.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/cms-and-inspector-general-duking-...
Sebelius is such an easy target for big business as she has no tech in her background and I said back in 2009 on record that Health IT would eat her up and sadly it is happening as she gets distracted with stuff like having a Facebook app being useful at HHS..go figure. I didn't want to be right on that one but it seems to be very true when you follow her in the news sometimes. The recent battle over the day after pill and her past actions with over riding FDA director Hamburg publicly who works for her certainly was a prime example. Now we have the judge saying she didn't have any scientific background for her decision too. I think you have a lot of this too perhaps with Holder at the DOJ as if you watch any of the Wall Street documentaries, like too big to jail, DOJ Manny was an exact same image sadly. It's the models folks that we need to look at.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/judge-orders-morning-after-pill-t...
A former Wall Street Quant comes right out and says so about lying models and be sure not to miss this blog post, she's right on the money.
http://mathbabe.org/2013/04/03/we-dont-need-more-complicated-models-we-need-to-stop-lying-with-our-models/
With a US collapse, I wonder who would maintain the 65 nuclear plants, spent fuel storage, and nuclear waste sites, not to mention the chemical industry infrastructure.
note to self : rewatch the movie mad max.
432 worldwide...
rats would - take a look at japan
of the twelve [12] total caesar's, julius was the crowning prince... the first-- in the centuries to follow, germany and russia adapted the meaning of the word caesar to kaiser and czar-- ironically, in modern day amerika we have czar's and presidium's servising the same nobility of old-- where our president elect is but a mere informal apponintment [*certainlly not nominated... rather a knighting?] by the usual bloodlines of the past..."Brutus--Et tu Brute"!
veni,... vidi,... vici,..
"So what we can expect is a gradual and inexorable decline and fall; the only real matter for discussion is how long will it take this time around?"
Gradual decline means nothing comprehensible in our current context as compared to the decline of the Roman empire. Kurzweil's Law of Accelerating Returns is a good referent point on this.
(http://www.kurzweilai.net/the-law-of-accelerating-returns)
We have been the "beneficiaries" of exponential advancements in computing power, along with developments in economics, energy, government and propaganda. We also get exponentially accelerating returns on the counter-effects of those advancements. Good reference points there are Fukushima and the Maconda well blow-out. And the utter catastrophe to come when our present systems destabilize.
While the resulting destruction may be relatively gradual as set against the frenzies of HFT algos, it will proceed at light speed next to the decline of the Roman empire. We have been in terminal decline since at least the early '70's, and that trajectory is continuing to accelerate. We can, imho, now count the time until the new Dark Ages arrive in years, if not months or weeks. It ain't going to be a millenial timeline this time around.
but ...but..but , obama black. damn racists , everything is perfekt long live the crony states of obamaville