Thursday 4 December 2008

Credit crunch concept isn't new... just ask the Romans!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/nov/28/credit-crunch-roman-republic-lecture

Cicero gave a speech that talks about credit crunch-type events that happened in 88 BCE!! Apparently, Rome had been in an expensive war with Mithridates of Pontus (now modern day Turkey) that wiped out the coffers and caused credit issues all the way back to Rome itself.

The orator told his audience: "Defend the republic from this danger and believe me when I tell you - what you see for yourselves - that this system of monies, which operates at Rome in the Forum, is bound up in, and is linked with, those Asian monies; the loss of one inevitably undermines the other and causes its collapse."


Gee, why am I having a deja-vu moment?