Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order: Why Nations Succeed and Fail

Everything that has happened and everything that will happen has had and will have determinants that make it happen.

When governments print a lot of money and buy a lot of debt, they cheapen both, which essentially taxes those who own it, making it easier for debtors and borrowers.

most important events repeat, though never in exactly the same way.

13. Openness to Global Thinking.

while the leading powers covered in this study were the richest and most powerful, they weren’t necessarily the best-off countries for two reasons.

printing money is the most expedient, least well-understood, and most common big way of restructuring debts.

Not having the historical perspective to recognize those differences is a handicap.

It creates a financial stress test. The financial conditions (as measured by incomes relative to expenses and assets relative to liabilities) that exist at the time of the stress test are the shock absorbers.

a limited amount of that hard money (e.g., gold on deposit),