The 7 Stages of Empire

the cycles that echo through history

Cycles are ubiquitous throughout all of nature. The planets and moons in our solar system move in a cyclical fashion influencing the weather and our position in the universe. Humans and animals have daily and monthly routines, as well as actions we perform throughout our lifetimes like clockwork.

You can not escape the cyclicality of nature.

If you can observe, understand and make decisions based on these cycles you can not only live a better life, but make a good living as well. Let me explain.

As Socrates is credited with saying “the unexamined life is not worth living.” I generally agree with this. God has created a world that is observable, He’s given us reason, logic, mathematics and many other tools to figure out what is actually happening around us.

Stage One

The first stage of empire is when a country starts with good money, aka hard money, aka gold and silver. Or they can create a currency that is 100% backed by hard money.

Stage Two

The country begins to develop economically and the state starts public works programs that require funding beyond anyone’s means. This is when credit is created and the state’s budget is bloated with excess spending.

Stage Three

The country’s economic affluence grows and therefore its influence follows suit. This is usually when it’s war machine starts to grow in the name of “defense.”

Stage Four

The state puts its military to use and its expenditures explode. The budget deficit starts to increase at an exponential pace.

Stage Five

The state begins to steal the wealth of its nation by debasing its coinage or printing unlimited currency that is supposed to be backed by physical money. If the common man doesn’t know that the gold is not being stored in the bank to back his dollar then he will go along for quite some time thinking everything is normal.

Stage Six

The stage where the general population senses the loss of purchasing power of their currency and eventually loses faith in their “money.”

Stage Seven

A mass movement into gold/silver and other real assets takes place in order to escape the fiat currency collapse. People who are early to this shift profit from the occurrence, but those who are late, lose much of their net worth.

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*I’ve borrowed the seven stages from Mike Maloney’s presentation here: