Bill Frezza: When Will the U.S. Go the Way of Rome?

When do you suppose the citizens of imperial Rome first realized that their way of life had tipped into inexorable decline?

A few foresaw the impact of Caesar's usurpation of the rule of law, marking his ascension as the beginning of the end. Many more sounded the alarm when Rome's fiscal balance spiraled out of control, debts multiplying faster than the ability to extract taxes from a dwindling base of productive citizens. The plebeian masses, accustomed to bread and circuses, were probably oblivious until Rome was finally sacked. Everything was fine yesterday, how did these barbarians arrive at our gates?

...Our own aspiring Caesar and his phalanx of facilitators promise more, not less. Free healthcare for all! Free cash for not working! Buy a car, buy a house, get a check! ...Court economists scream that things will keep getting worse unless we tax, borrow, and spend our way back to prosperity.

The decline of great powers
is caused by simple economic over extension.

Paul Michael Kennedy
British historian, and author of “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers”

...What will it take to make most people realize that the grand American experiment is tottering on the brink? The destruction of their life savings? The nationalization of vast industries? The high seas teaming with pirates? A humiliating military defeat at the hands of primitives in a far off land?

...A society that consumes more than it produces, rewarding the former and punishing the latter, is not sustainable.
A society that feels entitled to the good life without understanding where it comes from is delusional, rendering itself incapable of solving problems.

There is an element in the readjustment of our financial system,
more important than currency,
more important than gold,
and that is the confidence of the people.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Replaced Herbert Hoover as US President in 1932
 after government intervention failed to mitigate The Great Depression

...A society that gives up defending its way of life physically, morally, and intellectually will not last long in a hostile world.

Rome was the peak of civilization for a thousand years.

Will American find the strength to make it to 300?

Bill Frezza
Real Clear Markets