Deflation Watch pt 152

Bigdeflationfirst

Purch and Generali I value your opinion's quite highly. You once said you read the same sources as I do mostly. Well this is something I doubt you have come across. I would be very interested in your thoughts as to the 3 stages of the monetary cycle when you have time. It's from a paid subscription service I have cut and paste a section that is very interesting -


Monetary history


I would like to start at the very beginning of monetary history, because its a very good place to start. So when do you think was the earliest ever recorded financial transaction where the unit of account and the means of exchange was recorded? And what was the first ever unit of account mentioned? Interestingly it is silver that is first mentioned not gold, it is in Gen 13:2 Where Abraham was heavily stocked with silver and gold. This was not really a financial transaction as such but a good indication of what was being used as money. A few chapters later in 17:13,22 and 23 mentions purchasing with money, well what was being used as money here? What was being used as money at this time? Chapter 20:16 tells us about 1000 silver pieces of money.
Then Abraham in chapter 23 first of all in v9 got silver ready for a burial place for his wife. Then in v13,15 and 16 he weighed out the required amount of silver to bury his beloved wife Sarah. It cost him 400 pieces of silver or 400 silver shekiels. One Shekiel was about the same as todays 1 troy ounce of silver.
Now most of this book is based on solid facts that can be verified. Like the very first mention of money/silver in recorded history. Some of it will be my opinion based on sound reasoning which is this next bit, I am going to say that silver was most probably being used as money long before this first ever recorded example. There are several accounts of carrying on in business, and most importantly accounts saying they were buying and selling long before Abrahams first recorded financial transaction. But the first ever record of the unit of account is later as already mentioned. The account's from before did not say bartering as means of exchange it said buying and selling so there must have been a unit of account, even if it wasn't recorded. This is not proof alone of my theory that silver was being used as money but further sound reasoning to support my theory comes from Genesis 4:22 where they were mining copper and iron and other metals to make tools. Why is this so interesting? Well silver has a lower melting point than iron and some of these other metals they were refining. So they did have silver at these times 1000yrs before the first ever recorded financial transaction I mentioned, and the point I am making in this book is that silver is always the money of last resort but also the money of first resort as well.

So that was the very beginning of monetary history, we are not sure the exact time but my theory is long before Abraham. But human history did not start that long before Abraham because he was born only 2 years after Noah died and Noah was born not long after the first man ever Adam, died. So we are talking about very early on right at the start of humans being on the Earth. No doubt about it silver was money when we get up to Abrahams time period, and who was the dominant world power at this time? The first ever major dominant world power on the scene was Ancient Egypt. There is much evidence that silver was being used as money for a long time during Egypts dominance on the Earth. Joseph who was sold by his jelous brothers as a slave to Egypt hundreds of years after Abraham. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver, most probably these were silver ingots. But towards the end of the reign of Pharoh's the monetary cycle that has repeated throughout all known history began to make its presense. The people were decieved and convinced to use something other than gold and silver as a means of exchange and a unit of account. At this time around 4000 yrs ago, At first the imported gold and silver pieces were used by the Egyptians as precious metal of standardized weight in ingots rather than coins. To start with in the monetary cycle when some form of currency is introduced a temporary prosperity or false boom happens. To understand this false boom part of the monetary cycle, think of a business who is borrowing twice as much as they have profit every month. For as long as the bank foolishly keeps lending them funds every month they will look like they are booming but it is a false boom and can not last. This happened in ancient Egypt they became by far the wealthiest nation ever to exisit on Earth up until this time, all because of expanding their currency supply and people believing it is worth the same as gold and silver. But the monetary cycle is very consistent (see the 3 stages of the monetary cycle) and after the false boom which can vary in length, come the feeling that something is wrong with the expanding currency and then the slowly losing faith in the currency that has replaced gold and silver. Maybe you are feeling that way about the expanding currency supply in the world right now.

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred around 3000 BC. Originally money was gold and silver ingots. Then a form of receipt, representing gold and silver in storage in Ancient Egypt replaced the ingots.
This first stage of currency, where metals were used to represent stored value, formed the basis of trade in Ancient Egypt. After gold and silver were replaced with currency though it is not known what functioned as a currency to facilitate exchanges, but before Egypt went over to currency it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of silver, may have functioned as the medium of exchange. Remember anything at all other than gold and silver used as a medium of exchange is currency only gold and silver are at all times money in and of themselves.
Many Egyptologist's and historians speculate that many things were used as currency at this time which replaced gold and silver ingots as means of exchange.
This, one of the first cases of using something other than gold and silver, led to the demise of the once great Egyptian world power, and the rise of the next great power on the worlds scene Ancient Assyria. The monetary cycle repeated as it always has and gold and silver revalued to account for all the currecy that had been added to the supply. Assyria went back to using gold and silver, thus monetary precious metals did their first accounting and revalued to account for all the currency that had been added to supply. You could say one of the first hyperinflations. The currency goes to its true value of almost nothing and gold and silver value to their true value.

Lets review the first ever dominant world power and the 3 stages of the monetary cycle.

1. They start out using money ie gold and silver as the money of first and last resort.

Stage 2. They convince the people to accept representations of monetary precious metals in place of the gold and silver. The people accept them because this currency is redemable for the money. The people get so used to the currency that gold and silver get forgoten about. It brings about a false boom as the currency supply is expanded and people believe its worth something even as it's supply keeps expanding.

To illustrate this 2nd stage, think of a shirt brought to the dry cleaners. They issue you with a reciept for the shirt which is held by them. The recipt is a claim check on the shirt its not worth the same as the shirt intrinsicaly, but the perception is its worth the same as the shirt because its a claim check on the shirt. The same as currency being a claim check on the gold and silver in storage. Could the dry cleaners issue more claim checks then they held shirts? They could get away with it until the time comes when people want to hand in their claim checks and take back thirt's, but their would not be enough shirts to go around everyone with a claim check for a shirt.

Stage 3. Those creating the currency expand the supply even more fooling the people that still think they are as good as gold and silver or have forgoten completely and just view these units of currency as money. The supply expands and expands until the feeling that something is wrong with the currency and it always ends badly for currency and gold and silver revalue to account for the currency supply.

These 3 stages happened to Egypt which brought about their demise. Assyria the next great world power went back to stage 1, and using the newly revalued gold and silver, so using money as money not currency. Then the cycle repeats.


The word Assyria is derived from mât Aššur, which is the ancient Mesopotamian term for Land of Assyrius. They were known throughout the ancient world for their great cruelty and sadism, such as making pyramids of human heads outside their city gates.
Marvin A. Powell, in "Money in Mesopotamia," lists the types of currency used by people of ancient Assyria. Money was not in coin form at that time, although words like minas and shekels* -- used in connection with coinage and perhaps familiar from the Bible -- were applied to the weights of the ancient Mesopotamian form of money. For instance:

"The average well to do woman wore golden earrings (sometimes large) and silver rings on the arms and the feet. Those silver rings have a standard weight (5 shekels...) identical with standard fractions of the brideprice, and it is possible that the rings actually represented the price paid."
"Women in Mesopotamia," by M. Stol Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 38, No. 2, Women's History (1995), pp. 123-144.
[Bolding, mine.]

Remember Abraham paid for his wife's funeral with 400 silver shekels.
After gold and silver being used, currency of ancient Assyria was, in order from least valuable to most:

barley,
lead (especially in northern Mesopotamia [Assyria]),
copper or bronze,
tin.
So Gold and silver started off as the dominant forms, which were used as common denominators of value. Barley, and other forms of currency however, slowly replaced money. Interest rates on loans of barley were substantially higher than on silver: 33.3% vs 20%, according to Hudson.
Sources:

"Money in Mesopotamia," Marvin A. Powell. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 39, No. 3 (1996), pp. 224-242.
"How Interest Rates Were Set, 2500 BC-1000 AD: M!š, tokos and fœnus as Metaphors for Interest Accruals," Michael Hudson. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 2000.
"'Modern' Features in Old Assyrian Trade," Klaas R. Veenhof. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Vol. 40, No. 4 (1997), pp. 336-366.
"Sennacherib's Alleged Half-Shekel Coins," Peter Vargyas. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 111-115.
Also see: The History of Money.

* Online references to the value of (Minas and) Shekels say that 3000 Shekels = 1 Talent in the Bible, 1 Talent = 3600 shekels. I haven't found a source for the Assyrain figure, but Encyclopaedia of the history of science, technology, and medicine in non-western cultures, by Helaine Selin (1997) indicates the basis is the weight of the actual metal.


Thus the monetary cycle started to repeat and the people started using currency (anything other than gold and silver) as a means of exchange. This once again brought great prosperity to ancient Assyria, but as we now know it was what I call a false boom. Eventually the currency supply is expanded more and more, until the general feeling is something is wrong. The free market and the will of the public bid up the price of forgotten gold and silver to meet the currency supply. Whenever this happens it always ends badly for the nation who issued the currency.

Lets review the 2nd great world power Assyria, and the 3 stages of the monetary cycle.

1. They (Assiria) started out using money ie gold and silver as the money of first and last resort.

Stage 2. They convince the people to accept representations of monetary precious metals in place of the gold and silver. The people accept them because this currency they are redemable for the money. The people get so used to the currency that gold and silver get forgoten about. It brings about a false boom as the currency supply is expanded and people believe its worth something even as it keeps expanding.

Stage 3. Those creating the currency expand the supply even more fooling the people that still think they are as good as gold and silver or have forgoten completely and just view these units of currency as money. The supply expands and expands until the feeling that something is wrong with the currency and it always ends badly for currency and gold and silver revalue to account for the expanding currency supply.

These 3 stages happened to Assyria which brought about their demise. Babylon the next great world power went back to stage 1, and using the newly revalued gold and silver, so using money as money not currency. And the monetary cycle thus repeated again.

While thinking about monetary history the Bible gives an incredible account of some of the world powers “In the second year of the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar,” wrote the prophet Daniel, “Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams; and his spirit began to feel agitated, and his very sleep was made to be something beyond him.” (Daniel 2:1) The dreamer was Nebuchadnezzar, the king of the Babylonian Empire. He had effectively become world ruler. The following day Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “There exists a God in the heavens who is a Revealer of secrets, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what is to occur in the final part of the days.” Daniel was ready to reveal not only the future of the Babylonian Empire but an outline of world events from Nebuchadnezzar’s day to our time and beyond.—Daniel 2:24-30.

(The prophetic dream has been well written about, but I am looking at it from a world monetary history point of view. If you want to learn more about the more important aspects of the prophecy I suggest the Daniel's Prophecy book published by Watchtower.org.)

Nebuchadnezzar listened intently as Daniel explained: “You, O king, happened to be beholding, and, look! a certain immense image. That image, which was large and the brightness of which was extraordinary, was standing in front of you, and its appearance was dreadful. As regards that image, its head was of good gold, its breasts and its arms were of silver, its belly and its thighs were of copper, its legs were of iron." Daniel next declared: “This is the dream, and its interpretation.”—Daniel 2:36. “You, O king, the king of kings, you yourself are the head of gold.” (Daniel 2:37, 38) The successive world powers represented by the metallic parts of the image could now exercise world domination. Lets look at them one at a time a what led to their demise as world powers.

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Lets go back to the start again, Before money was invented, people traded, using a barter system. They exchanged goods and services of equal value. Traders using barter eventually saw the need for a more convenient commodity that could be used to buy and sell goods. The solution was to use precious metals such as gold and silver coins and ingots to buy goods and services.
For example one of the earliest recorded examples was right at the start of the Bible when Abraham bought a burial site for his beloved wife Sarah he weighed out the required amount of silver.-Genesis 23:14-16
Silver was almost certainly money long before this first recorded example. The first coins and ingots were likely minted in Lydia (modern-day Turkey) sometime even 1000's of years before Christ. Metal workers in various countries were soon mass producing silver coins and people throughout the lands mentioned in the Bible began using them.
As well as traders another group who handled money were the bankers. They devised saving systems, made loans, and paid out interest to those who invested in the bank. Jesus referred to these bankers in an illustration about slaves who were given various amounts of money with which to do business.-Matthew 25:26,27
As silver coins and ingots could be heavy and cumbersome these bankers soon devised ways of holding onto peoples silver money and issuing currency in place. Lots of things have been used as currency throughout history like shells, sticks and of course paper but only gold and silver are money.

Apparently by Nimrod’s time (Nimrod was Noah's great grandson so soon after the flood c. 2270 B.C.E.), the basis for such a system was largely in place. The Collins Atlas of World History explains that “from the third millennium onwards Mesopotamia [Babylon] developed powerful corporations of businessmen. They stocked goods, speculated, used various types of goods as currency, and used ingots, especially of silver, carved into particular weights and sizes and sometimes bearing authentication marks.” The main money used was silver bullion known as a Sheqel which was about 1 troy ounce of silver. For bigger purchases they used the Mine = 0,5 KG silver (60 Sheqel)
Talent = 30 KG silver. For smaller purchases the Korn / Gran =44 mg silver Sekel = 8 mg silver. Here is the interesting bit according to some historians they in time started issuing written checks or receipts for stored silver (carved on on plates or written on animal skins) with same personal details as checks today (Amount, quantity, date, name etc). The Encyclopedia Americana says that the ancient inhabitants of Shinar—the original name for what was later called Babylonia—carried on “a surprisingly complex system of lending, borrowing, holding money on deposit, and providing letters of credit.” Or in simple terms confusing the people about what is money and currency and getting them to think currency was as good money. Then those with the power to write on animal skins "this is worth one ounce of silver" could literally create as much wealth as they wanted. As long the people were fooled into believing it was worth one oz of silver then they could spend as many animal skins as they could create, i.e far more than there were ounces of silver in existence.

Commercial activities in Nimrod’s day are not directly referred to in the Bible. Yet, expressions found in its first book, such as “to buy,” “to sell,” and “carry on business,” indicate that at least a few hundred years later, commercial activities were commonplace.—See Genesis 25:31; 34:10, 21; 39:1; 41:56, 57.

So we are up to Babylon the 3rd world power after Egypt and Assiria.
It is true that for a prolonged period of time, cuneiform texts are silent with respect to commercial activities in Babylonian society. Admitting that this is difficult to explain, the book Ancient Mesopotamia nevertheless concludes that “one cannot assume that trade relations ceased through that millennium, especially since they are known to have flourished greatly in the subsequent period.” This work suggests that at that time trade may have rested mainly in Aramaic hands and that papyrus and leather (animal skins the first forms of paper) were used as writing materials as well as currency. These have not been preserved through the ages like the cuneiform tablets that can be seen in the British museum. All we know is that the once mighty Babylon was sacked in 539 B.C.E. If any of these animal skins had been preserved through the ages I wonder if there would have been evidence that one of the reasons for the fall of Babylon was the knock out blow of worthless currency and the once again won battle between currency and real money gold and silver? I put forth one theory that could have possibly been the case. As as happened many times throughout history most recently in Zimbarbwe under president Mugarby the soldiers began to lose faith in the currency no matter how much they were paid. So thinking of Babylon why were there no lookouts or guards who would have noticed Cyrus armies and why were the gates left open? It's only a theory, but what is fact is that Babylon went over to currency from money and it ended badly for them.

So the head of gold in the dream image represented not just Nebuchadnezzar but the entire Babylonian line of rullership.
Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar: “After you there will rise another kingdom.” (Daniel 2:39) A kingdom symbolized by the image’s breasts and arms of silver would succeed Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty. Some 200 years earlier, Isaiah had foretold this kingdom, even giving the name of its victorious king—Cyrus. (Isaiah 13:1-17; 21:2-9; 44:24–45:7, 13) This was the Medo-Persian Empire.

Some 60 years after interpreting the dream, Daniel witnessed the end of Nebuchadnezzar’s dynasty, as they had their own version of what the world is going through at the time of writing, their own little Babylonian financial crisis due to expanded currency supplies. Daniel was present on the night of October 5/6, 539 B.C.E., when the Medo-Persian army took seemingly impregnable Babylon and executed King Belshazzar. With the death of Belshazzar, the golden head of the dream image—the Babylonian Empire—ceased to exist.

Lets review the 3rd great world power Babylon and how they went through the 3 stages of the monetary cycle.

1. They start out using money ie gold and silver as the money of first and last resort.

Stage 2. They convince the people to accept representations of monetary precious metals in place of the gold and silver. The people accept them because this currency is redemable for the money. The people get so used to the currency that gold and silver get forgoten about. It brings about a false boom as the currency supply is expanded and people believe its worth something even as it keeps expanding.

Stage 3. Those creating the currency expand the supply even more fooling the people that still think they are as good as gold and silver or have forgoten completely and just view these units of currency as money. The supply expands and expands until the feeling that something is wrong with the currency and it always ends badly for currency and gold and silver revalue to account for the currency supply.

These 3 stages happened to Babylon which brought about their demise. Medo-Persia the next great world power went back to stage 1, and using the newly revalued gold and silver, so using money as money again not currency.

So after Babylon the world power was Medo-Persia. There is ample proof that they went back to using silver as money. I have been researching for a while when and how they went from using real money to issuing and using currency but historians do not always agree on this. However what we do know is that Alexander the Great by force formed an international new monetary system 2300 years ago when he conquered the Medo-Persian empire and imposed his own monetary system, based on gold and silver. * This indicates that before the fall of the then world power Medo-Persia, the world was using currency not money as a global financial system. But as I said there is ample proof that they started off using silver as money not currency.

So how could Alexander the great go back to stage 1, if they were already using gold and silver? The answer is they (Medo-Persia) had already gone through stages 1,2 and 3.

By now it is easy to see the pattern developing. A world power starts using money and then fools its people into thinking currency is as good as money which will bring about its fall.

Bigdeflationfirst

The last of the kings on the throne of the Persian Empire was Darius III. His reign ended abruptly in 331 B.C.E. when he suffered a terrible defeat by Alexander the Great at Gaugamela, near ancient Nineveh. This defeat ended the Medo-Persian World Power as symbolized by the silver part of the image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. The power to come was superior in some ways, yet inferior in others. This becomes clear as we listen to Daniel’s further interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream.

Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that the belly and thighs of the immense image constituted “another kingdom, a third one, of copper, that [would] rule over the whole earth.” (Daniel 2:32, 39) This third kingdom would follow Babylonia and Medo-Persia. As copper is inferior to silver, this new world power would be inferior to Medo-Persia in that it would not be honored with any privilege like that of liberating God’s people. However, the copperlike kingdom would “rule over the whole earth,” indicating that it would be more extensive than either Babylonia or Medo-Persia. What do the facts of history bear out about this world power?

After the victory at Gaugamela, Alexander the Great went on to take the Persian capitals Babylon, and others. Subduing the rest of the Persian Empire, he extended his conquests into western India. As Daniel had foretold, the copper kingdom ‘ruled over the whole earth.’

Lets review the 4th world power Medo-Persia and how they went through the 3 stages of the monetary cycle.

1. They start out using money ie gold and silver as the money of first and last resort.

Stage 2. They convince the people to accept representations of monetary precious metals in place of the gold and silver. The people accept them because this currency they are redemable for the money. The people get so used to the currency that gold and silver get forgoten about. It brings about a false boom as the currency supply is expanded and people believe its worth something even as it keeps expanding.

Stage 3. Those creating the currency expand the supply even more fooling the people that still think they are as good as gold and silver or have forgoten completely and just view these unit of currency as money. The supply expands and expands until the feeling that something is wrong with the currency and it always ends badly for currency and gold and silver revalue to account for the currency supply.

These 3 stages happened to Medo-Persia which brought about their demise. Greece the next great world power went back to stage 1, and using the newly revalued gold and silver, so using money as money again not currency.

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If you have studied history you will know that ancient Greece was considered one of the great civilisations of all time. So what happened why did such a great world power fall? The answer lies in the same pattern we have see time and again.

As we have said when Greece became the dominant world power they went back to using money as money rather than currency, how long would it last this time? Well they really flourished under this new monetary system. As Mike Maloney says in his book about monetary history "Then they got involved with a war that turned out to be far longer and more costly than they thought (sound familiar?). After many years of war and most of their money spent the Greeks came up with a very clever way to continue funding the war. It was the same thing that led to the demise of every major world power we have looked at up to this time. They began to debase their money into currency to pay for the war. They discovered if you take 1000 silver coins in taxes and then mix in 50% copper you can then spend 2000 coins. Does it sound familiar? Maybe not as bad as issuing 2 animal skins for every 1 silver coin, but its very similar to what the previous world powers did."

This was now a government currency that you could buy gold and silver with, but the currency supply was no longer gold and silver in and of themselves. And as a consiquence this currency became practically worthless. It's very interesting the Bible chose copper to represent Greece as the next world power when they were the first to use copper to debase their currency. But obviously once the public woke up to the abuse of money and the currency debasement anyone who held on to their old silver coins found they were worth a lot lot more than the same face value 50% copper coins. This once again led to their downfall, within a short time of going off money and onto currency they eventually became nothing more than a province of the next great world power that had been prophicied in Daniels time...... Rome.


Lets review how the 5th world power Greece came to its downfall and how the monetary cycle repeated once again.

1. They (Greece) went back to using money ie gold and silver as the money of first and last resort.

Stage 2. They convince the people to accept representations of monetary precious metals in place of the gold and silver. For the first time, this time it was debased coinage. The people accept them because this currency they are using is redemable for the money. The people get so used to the currency that gold and silver get forgoten about. It brings about a false boom as the currency supply is expanded and people believe its worth something even as it keeps expanding.

Stage 3. Those creating the currency expand the supply even more fooling the people that still think they are as good as gold and silver or have forgoten completely and just view these units of currency as money. The supply expands and expands until the feeling that something is wrong with the currency and it always ends badly for currency and gold and silver revalue to account for the expanding currency supply.

These 3 stages happened to Greece which brought about their demise. Rome the next great world power went back to stage 1, and using the newly revalued gold and silver, so using money as money not currency. And the monetary cycle thus repeated again.

Daniel continued his explanation of the dream image: “As for the fourth kingdom [after Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece (not including Egypt and Assiria)], it will prove to be strong like iron. Forasmuch as iron is crushing and grinding everything else, so, like iron that shatters, it will crush and shatter even all these.” (Daniel 2:40) In its strength and ability to crush, this world power would be like iron—stronger than the empires represented by gold, silver, or copper. The Roman Empire was such a power. Rome crushed and shattered the Grecian Empire and swallowed up remnants of the Medo-Persian and Babylonian world powers.

Lets look at how the Rome empire fell.

Rome just as every empire in history never learned from the mistakes of past empires. Over the many years of Roman leaders various leaders inflated the Roman currency supply by debasing the coinage and issuing more paper reciepts than they held real money gold and silver. All this led to one of the worlds first known about hyper inflations. At one time a pound of gold was worth 50,000 Denari in the year AD 301, but 50 years later it was worth 2.2 billion denari. It had risen 42,400 time in 5 decades. In modern times to compare, 50 years ago gold was $35 an ounce if it rose the same amount in the same time period it would today be worth over $1.5 million an ounce. If a an average new car sold for about $2000 50 years ago which they did, the average new car today would sell for $85 million.

In the end it was currency debasement that brought down the Roman empire. Just like every empire throughout history it thought it could go from money to currency and get away with it. As you can see debasing currency is a pattern that repeats throughout history. It is a pattern that always ends badly.

As Chris Duane brings out in his truth never told and silver bullet silver shield series of video's "When the Barbarians were at the gates of Rome they gave them the choice of paying 1 ton of silver and they would not sack Rome. As Chris says The Romans either would not or could not come up with 1 ton of silver, I think it was the latter. But they could offer a lot of currency to the barbarians which of course was almost worthless hence the barbarians sacking Rome and leading to an end to the great Roman world power.

Lets once again review this latest world power Rome and how it came to fall and the roll of the 3 stages of the monetary cycle.

1. They (Rome) started out using money ie gold and silver as the money of first and last resort.

Stage 2. They convince the people to accept representations of monetary precious metals in place of the gold and silver. The people accept them because this currency they are redemable for the money. The people get so used to the currency that gold and silver get forgoten about. It brings about a false boom as the currency supply is expanded and people believe its worth something even as it keeps expanding.

Stage 3. Those creating the currency expand the supply even more fooling the people that still think they are as good as gold and silver or have forgoten completely and just view these units of currency as money. The supply expands and expands until the feeling that something is wrong with the currency and it always ends badly for currency and gold and silver revalue to account for the expanding currency supply.

These 3 stages happened to Rome which brought about their demise. The next great world power went back to stage 1, and using the newly revalued gold and silver, so using money as money not currency. And the monetary cycle thus repeated again.

But the iron legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream image pictured not only the Roman Empire but also its political outgrowth. Consider these words we have already looked at recorded at Revelation 17:10: “There are seven kings: five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet arrived, but when he does arrive he must remain a short while.” When the apostle John penned these words, he was being held in exile by the Romans, on the isle of Patmos. The five fallen kings, or world powers, were Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. (Both Egypt and Assyria followed the same pattern of starting with money and going over to currency, but it has been edited out of this book for taking up too much space.) The sixth—the Roman Empire—was still in power. But it also was to fall, and the seventh king would arise from one of Rome’s captured territories. What world power would that be? Britain was once a northwestern part of the Roman Empire. But by the year 1763, it had become the British Empire—the Britannia that ruled the seven seas. By 1776 its 13 American colonies had declared their independence in order to set up the United States of America. In later years, however, Britain and the United States became partners and have been ever since. Thus, the Anglo-American combination came into existence as the seventh world power of Bible prophecy. Like the Roman Empire, it has proved to be “strong like iron,” exercising ironlike authority. The iron legs of the dream image thus include both the Roman Empire and the Anglo-American dual world power.

We can learn from the way Daniel described the metal image that the Anglo-American world power would come from Rome, not conquer Rome. Daniel said the iron starts in the legs and continues to the feet and toes. In the feet and toes the iron is mixed with clay. This clay that is mixed in with the iron means people within the Anglo-American world power. Over the years this clay or what are commonly referred to as the globalist Elite has been the ones telling governments what to do. They have in the past been on record as saying things like "give me control of the currency supply and I care not who is in government."






So the 7 kings prophecied in Revelation are Egypt, Assiria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, then Rome then British-American world powers.

At the time of writing this, we are in stage 2 rapidly approaching stage 3 of the monetary cycle of the Anglo-American world power.

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It has to be said that these 7 dominant world powers does not include every world power through out history. But I feel it does include the main ones. Most others if not almost all dominant world powers through out history went through these 3 stages of the monetary cycle that ended badly for them. For example Gengis Kain's reign went far further than Alexander the greats. But his dominant wolrd power only lasted a few generations unlike the 7 main ones I looked at. But even his and subsiquent Khan's (Chinese ruler) went through the monetary cycle, there is a famous quote that has survived until this day. "The great Khan (Chinese ruler), causes the bark of trees, made into something like paper, to pass for money all over his country." It's well worth repeating for emphasis that many things have been used as currency but only gold and silver are money in and of themselves.



If you were to ask someone 500 years ago: What is money?
Depending which stage of the cycle the world was in but They would most probably reply: Gold and silver.

If you asked the same question 1000 hundred years ago the reply would almost certainly be: Gold and silver.

And if you asked the same question 5,000 and more years ago, you would get the same answer: Gold and silver.

If you asked someone today they would probably say cash in my wallet. You would very rarely get gold and silver as an answer unless someone was very well educated about the 3 stages of the monetary cycle.

Gold being used mainly by kings or very big purchases, silver has far more been used as money throughout history.
As soon as paper was invented the bankers persuaded people to store their heavy silver in the bank and then they would issue more convenient paper currency as receipts for their real money. They could then have exchange rates for these different types of currencies be they tally sticks or shells or animal skins with writing painted on them (the first forms of paper currency).
The problem was the bankers cleverly found out that they could issue more currency receipts than they held gold and silver. Anyone could write on a piece of old animal skin this is worth 1 ounce of silver. But no one would believe it was worth 1 ounce of silver. But the bankers had the power to write this is worth 1 ounce of silver and people believed it was, because they thought the bank held 1 ounce of silver for every "paper" currency "note" they issued. This is always how the monetary cycle goes from stage 1 to stage 2.
Then over time people began to suspect the banks were issuing and spending more currency than they had gold and silver and the people began to lose confidence in these bits of "paper" and started a rush out of currency and into real money gold and silver. Then the truth becomes clear that there are far more of these paper ounces of silver than real ounces. The paper currency goes to its true value of nothing and real gold and silver become very very highly valued.
History has repeated over and over throughout the millenniums. Frequently over the last few thousand years in different places around the world there has been this rush out of currency and into money.
I believe we are on the verge of this happening now but not just in a few places around the world but for the first time ever the entire world all at the same time.
Fast forward to modern times. For thousands of years now since the first ever bankers we just talked about, the same cycle has repeated. Bankers try to confuse people between what is currency and real money. They get the masses to believe that currency is just as good as real money so they can create as much currency out of thin air as possible and spend it on what they like. At some point there is so much currency about that people lose confidence in it and rush back to gold and silver real money. Then over the next several generation's this is forgotten and the cycle repeats.

The initial method involved debasing the currency, the old fashioned way. Henry VIII earned his nickname "Old Coppernose" because he added so much copper to what were supposed to be silver coins that eventually it would show through on the nose of his portrait. As the coins were being used the nose was he first to wear away. Nowadays they debase the currency not by mixing copper into the silver but by typing zero's into their bank accounts.
These bouts of debasement typically end in disaster, as faith is lost in the currency, inflation shoots through the roof and the economy collapses, after which politicians introduce a new, more credible system, and the cycle repeats.
After WW2 the first Breton Woods system was introduced which meant that the US dollar was fully backed by real money gold and silver and all other currencies would be backed by the US dollar. So at the Breton Woods meeting, the world agreed that all currencies would be backed by gold and silver meaning that the world was not using currency but real honest money again. How long could it last this time?
A few decades later some countries suspected the Americans of playing the exact same trick as the very first ever bankers we talked about. The Americans were painting on bits of animal skin this is worth 1 ounce of silver or gold. Only now it was not animal skin it was billions of little green bits of paper called US Dollars.
No worries under the Breton Woods 1 agreement each dollar was backed by real gold and every currency was backed by the dollar. So some countries asked to be paid in real money instead of these funny green bits of paper. The Americans did not like it.
Under Tricky Dicky President Nixon they wanted everyone to just trust them that they would not print more paper than they held peoples gold and silver. But everyone suspected they were printing far more than they had real precious metal.
Then France in the 60's said what's the difference the dollar is fully backed by gold isn't it? We would like gold not the funny green bits of paper that seem to be increasing in quantity very fast.
Under Breton Woods 1 agreement the US could not do anything about it. Vast amounts of gold and silver were drawn out of America. This draining continued until 1971.

This was the year that many suspect the USA to have almost run out of gold and silver. Its confirmed they have now run out of silver stockpiles, gold is unknown they will not let anyone check but they admit all the silver is gone.

So Nixon came on TV in 1971 and announced to the world that the US dollar would "temporarily" no longer be backed by real gold!!!!!! He ended the Bretton Woods international monetary system. (I am writing this book over 40 years after and they are still "temporarily" using fiat currency. For the price of gold and silver to catch up with all those units of dollars they created out of thin air, is a moving target. Because they are still expanding the currency supply.) It's well worth watching this Nixon speech search youtube Nixon 1971 gold. He never really said how long this temporary new monetary system would last but here well over 40 years later the world is still temporarily using this system.

His exact words were on Sunday August 15th 1971 "urgently needed new international monetary system" urgently needed because they were running out of gold and silver, and they wanted people to forget about gold and silver are money and believe their animal skins (US Dollars) were worth something.

The cycle repeated once again. And once again the next generations would be confused about what is real money and what is currency.
So this new monetary system was started in 1971. As the US dollar was no longer backed by gold and every currency in the world was backed by the US dollar, the entire world was now using currency (animal skins with 1oz bullion painted on them) and not real money, for the first time ever its now global.
The central bankers all around the world could now add as many units of fiat (means by government decree, the government`s say you have to use it) currency as they like. Just the same as the first ever banks becoming wealthy by painting on animal skins and people believing they are worth something, central banks print trillions of units of fiat currency, and people foolishly believe they are worth something when the truth is they are worthless, it's only the foolish belief that they are worth something that gives them worth.

What is even more absurd is now they don`t even need to print it they can just type it into their bank account and spend it however they want. Its digital units of currency not worth the paper they are not printed on. Expanding the currency supply of the planet and we work for it like slaves.

The first ever bankers had to get bits of animal skin to create currency, but today bankers really can create currency out of thin air by typing it into their bank accounts and making fancy names up for it like QE, or stimulus.
We actually work hard for these units of fiat currency and the banks are laughing as they churn out billions and trillions more units and spend them all over the world.
This is the same cycle that has repeated in various parts of the world throughout the millenniums. But this time for the first time ever its the entire world involved, the population of the planet well over 7 Billion and the amount of gold and especially silver is getting very scarce.
Every time this has happened the masses wake up to the fact that units of currency are becoming worth less and less as the currency supply expands. When confidence is lost in currency what happens? The same thing that has always happened for thousands of years, that's what. There is a mass exodus from currency and into real money gold and silver.
Most recent currency crisis happened in Zimbabwe where you had trillion dollar notes not worth toilet paper. What is the difference between the Zimbabwe Dollar and the US Dollar or British Pound, Euro, Yen etc? No difference only a matter of time. It is a certainty that all currencies will devalue compared to silver bullion as more units of currency are added that are chasing a very limited amount of real silver available for investors to buy.
There are now far more ounces of gold available for investors to buy than ounces of silver. Mike Maloney who is an excellent monetary historian says that if all the gold bullion in the world were put together it would fit on a tennis court. It would be about a 20M cube. He says if all the silver bullion available in the world were put together it would be about an 11M cube, would fit on less than half a tennis court. Just picture that in your mind a 20M cube on a tennis court, silver half the density gold.
Whenever this cycle has repeated thoughout history there has always been plenty of silver bullion available compared with the population wanting to buy it. Now there is a huge population of the planet involed in the global financial crisis and only enough silver bullion to fit on half a tennis court to go around everyone.
I believe this cycle will happen again very soon, but this time there is very, very little real silver available in the world compared to gold bullion and compared to world population. It can happen anywhere in the world to start with and then spread around the planet as everyone wants to change their worthless currency for silver bullion.
The analogy given by David Morgan another real money expert is like a flock of birds all flying in the same direction and suddenly all at the same time changing direction. That`s how fast the world can lose confidence in currency and the rush begins.
At times like these gold and silver are not only the safest place to store your wealth but also the place with the most potential gains.

wotsthat

The pattern is that civilisations come and go. No matter how big and tough you think you are someone bigger, tougher and meaner will come along eventually and take it away.

The biggest surprise in all this is that it's from a paid for source. People pay for that s**t??!!

Conrad

Bigdeflationfirst wrote: »

By now it is easy to see the pattern developing. A world power starts using money and then fools its people into thinking currency is as good as money which will bring about its fall.

Your analogy is invalid on many levels. This sort of simplistic analysis of past cycles (which incidentaly have key differences from one another) in order to give us a useful template from which to navigate the future / present economic landscape has been tried in the past and proved to be at best, an interesting ditty.

Generali

Bigdeflationfirst wrote: »

I would agree with small details here and there, the short term noise as it were. But the big picture is the 3 stages of the monetary cycle that has repeated time and time again. Do you really think it will stop repeating?

I'd be a lot happier with that history you quoted if it had some proper footnotes or indeed anything else to suggest that it is a genuine piece of historical research rather than an series of assertions.

AIUI, it is generally accepted that the first fiat money was created in China in C11th. I'm not sure how this regular debasing of the money supply could have occurred with such regularity over 4,000 years yet not be generally known.

A point about exponential curves is that they don't ever 'go vertical' until they reach an infinite point which, given that space-time is finite, can never be reached in practical terms.

Conrad

wotsthat wrote: »

The pattern is that civilisations come and go. No matter how big and tough you think you are someone bigger, tougher and meaner will come along eventually and take it away.

I don't think this applies in the main to modern civilisations.
The fabric of long passed civilisations was in it's infancy, a function of fuzzy bordered ever changing kingdoms, at a time where wars according to all the stats were hugely more plentiful than now, a time when the rule of law was largely in infancy. So we lost our Empire, but so what, we still have a civilisation that continues to act like a lamp to immigrant moths.

If China get a bigger economy than America, this does not mean American civilisation will be wiped out, why would it.
Furthermore keep in mind the average Chinese earnes hugely less than the average American.

Also people confuse a nations wealth with it's prowess. Still most influencial technical and artistic (think global hip - hop / hollywood films / British footie / British gaming software) comes from places like America and Europe. Personally I consider the Chinese and Indians far to subservient and robotic in mindset to get anywhere close to becomming world leaders in innovation. And technical innovation is what the near future is all about as we enter the next industrial revolution (bio tech etc). It is Britain and the west at the forefront of the new technologies, for example The University Of London recently managed to get blood cells to turn into stem cells, a huge step in us all being able to have a bank of replacement personal non - rejectionable organs. The whole future is bound up with us Humans becomming in charge of our organic frailty and in turn this will lead to us matter of factly wanting all manner of enhancments.

purch

I find it hard to take seriously a cut and pasted article that cannot even spell the name BRETTON WOODS correctly.

That clearly shows a lack of proper research.

wotsthat

Generali wrote: »

I'd be a lot happier with that history you quoted if it had some proper footnotes or indeed anything else to suggest that it is a genuine piece of historical research rather than an series of assertions.

Well it did reference the Bible. Always my first port of call for information about currency and financial matters. Looks like Nebuchadnezzar was a bit of a PM nut. That's one username I haven't seen on here yet.

Anyway, I think we'll be seeing more QE. My fear is that if overdone inflation won't just tick up so that it can be stopped but that it will increase suddenly and be less easy to control.

Generali

wotsthat wrote: »

Well it did reference the Bible. Always my first port of call for information about currency and financial matters. Looks like Nebuchadnezzar was a bit of a PM nut. That's one username I haven't seen on here yet.

Anyway, I think we'll be seeing more QE. My fear is that if overdone inflation won't just tick up so that it can be stopped but that it will increase suddenly and be less easy to control.

The trouble is you can't simply unwind QE as you can't insist that the banks take all the bonds back that they sold to the BoE.

Getting back to 'normal' is going to be the interesting part of what's going on right now.

wotsthat

Conrad wrote: »

If China get a bigger economy than America, this does not mean American civilisation will be wiped out, why would it.

War, famine and disease will wipe out American civilisation - the same as every civilisation that there's ever been. The relative size of economies or whether we see ourselves as modern makes no difference.

Nothing lasts for ever.