The Long Shadow of the Spanish Inquisition

[BobK71]

When two thieves in cahoots are caught, it's reasonable to expect the more powerful one to turn on the other.  The latter was the fate of the bankers after the burst of the debt bubble of the 16th century Spanish empire.

The bankers had enticed monarchs and noblemen to incur debts that eventually became clearly unpayable.  When no one trusted the debt assets any more, the economy and empire imploded.  The political elites treated the bankers to the Spanish Inquisition.

Our own version of this saga has already started.  Politicians like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren have been blaming the financial crisis solely on banks, even though politicians and public institutions like Freddie, Fannie and the Federal Reserve, and minority advocacy groups were intimately involved in the inflation and maintenance of the mortgage bubble.

But, the bankers have a plan, and the plan is not to get caught.  Post-16th-century, global imperial financial bubbles did not end in obvious and painful implosions.  The imperial power is able to cultivate and befriend the next global empire, in return for using the new empire's economic muscle to support the old empire's assets and easing it into a gentle decline.

Thus the Dutch empire turned England from foe to friend, and taught it to found the Bank of England to leverage its own economic growth into a power base of financial assets.  Britain fought a bloody World War I to ensure a friendly USA, and not Germany, would inherit global empire.  The USA has been cultivating India (but not China) at least since the Clinton administration, which stunned nuclear non-proliferation watchers by giving it special treatment.  India is now one of the most US-loving populations in the world.

If this history suggests a certain a long-range, rather than a simple get-rich-quick-and-let-Rome-burn strategy on the part of the financial elite, may be it is a valid point.  The three latter imperial transitions out of four have been or is intended to be gentle (if you consider World War I to be gentler than a collapse of the British economy.)

If this theory is correct, the moral of the story is that the elites will do everything in their power to keep most people from getting awaken (to the reality of imperial money-and-debt bubble making) by major economic pain, until the next designated empire is able to take over.

To this end, I suppose the elites can't afford the risk of total asset collapse that would be brought by totally abandoning gold, silver and Bitcoin.  When things get bad enough, they will want the option of pegging their issued money to a non-state 'hard' money.  The shadow of the Spanish Inquisition runs long.

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[yayayo]

These are some interesting thoughts. However I'm not sure, if history can be used as a exact projection of the future. Especially I think, today's elites are less homogeneous than past ones who were all part of the aristocracy. While it is clear that many power motives are executed in obscure ways I  doubt that there has been an orderly hand-over of power from one to another nation in the way described.

I think reality is more complex. Not everything the elites plan is working out according to plan. Elites are people, too. They make mistakes and can't predict future with certainty. Their class is not immune to internal revolution and at times even they are overturned.

Personally I doubt that Bitcoin has been planned by the "elites" and I'm not sure if they are prepared for the power transition that may result from it.

ya.ya.yo!

[BobK71]

These are some interesting thoughts. However I'm not sure, if history can be used as a exact projection of the future. Especially I think, today's elites are less homogeneous than past ones who were all part of the aristocracy. While it is clear that many power motives are executed in obscure ways I  doubt that there has been an orderly hand-over of power from one to another nation in the way described.

I think reality is more complex. Not everything the elites plan is working out according to plan. Elites are people, too. They make mistakes and can't predict future with certainty. Their class is not immune to internal revolution and at times even they are overturned.

Personally I doubt that Bitcoin has been planned by the "elites" and I'm not sure if they are prepared for the power transition that may result from it.

ya.ya.yo!

This is what I would normally think.  A prime example of internal rebellion for me is Hank Paulson's refusal to bail out Lehman Bros. in 2008.  (He'll probably be punished til the end of his life.)

Although, it takes a long time to cultivate (or, alternatively to demonize) a whole country.  I was always puzzled why not many people outside America liked Britain, and I found it interesting that Indians were just about the only major heavily pro-American population.

Keeping in mind that in pure economic terms, Germany had more of a claim to the 'throne' than the US, but Germans were heavily disliked by Britons before World War I (for no reason, really), we might understand better why China is constantly bashed in the American media today.

Some of the 'strategic' behavior doesn't actually need to be planned.  Various forms of financial repression (including reaching outside the top imperial country for support of its money and debt, as happened during the mid-to-late 19th century and after 1971,) may just happen naturally since the action appears to be the path of least resistance for the elites.  But the above shows there may be more to it than that.

[BobK71]

Personally I doubt that Bitcoin has been planned by the "elites" and I'm not sure if they are prepared for the power transition that may result from it.

ya.ya.yo!

No, I would not think Bitcoin has been planned by the elites.  Discovering Bitcoin as a possible future support for the elites' money (ie an alternative to gold and silver) is possible IMO.

[Gohs]

I think reality is more complex. Not everything the elites plan is working out according to plan. Elites are people, too. They make mistakes and can't predict future with certainty. Their class is not immune to internal revolution and at times even they are overturned.

Personally I doubt that Bitcoin has been planned by the "elites" and I'm not sure if they are prepared for the power transition that may result from it.

ya.ya.yo!

I agree that not everything the elites want is working according to plan, but cryptos is one world currency, what else does a one world government need other than a currency to go with it?

[BobK71]

I think reality is more complex. Not everything the elites plan is working out according to plan. Elites are people, too. They make mistakes and can't predict future with certainty. Their class is not immune to internal revolution and at times even they are overturned.

Personally I doubt that Bitcoin has been planned by the "elites" and I'm not sure if they are prepared for the power transition that may result from it.

ya.ya.yo!

I agree that not everything the elites want is working according to plan, but cryptos is one world currency, what else does a one world government need other than a currency to go with it?

You could make the same statement about gold.  There was a time when the British imperial elites wanted the rest of the world to use gold (and not silver) as the single monetary base.

There was a lot of suffering from 'demonetizing' silver, but it did help stabilize the British-led world system when all major countries were on the gold standard only.