Will we see an empire in the next few decades?

Emperor implies you are ruling a group of people by force, while a King rules over a group of people with a common kinship. Even the Arabs have often adopted the term king instead of sultan, caliph, or sheik.

I thought that Japan still had an empire, but the Japanese constitution of 1947 formally abolished the empire. Although, I am sure this list is debatable, but these are the last 6 empires on Earth and the year they ended.

1999 Portuguese Empire (Macao)
1997 British Empire (Hong Kong)
1980 French colonial Empire (Republic of Vanuatu )
1979 Pahlavi Dynasty in Iran (Persian) with the overthrow of Shah
1975 Dutch Empire (Dutch Guianas)
1975 Spanish Empire (Spanish Sahara)

Britain and France still have oversees possessions, but Britain's remaining territories are very tiny, and France give most of it's overseas citizens full rights as if they lived on the mainland.

I believe that Puerto Rico is that most populous place without full citzenship rights.

Modern empires are about economic not military control. It is not as direct but not as dirty. The USA has most of the world locked intp the dollar system and China is getting nations under their thumb with debt similar to a mafia bust out of a business. On a smaller scale I have read that Jordan is de facto a protectorate of Israel at this point. By mid century we may see smaller African nations fall under the stronger ones.

Look who is sitting at the table at the G-8. There may not be an emperor, but the central bank holds sway globally.

I saw earlier that we printed 1.9 trillion dollars last week. The guy says, first we should look at how large a number a trillion is. I think it is if every second counted as one, it would take us back to 30 thousand years BCE to get to a trillion.

That is an incomprehensible amount of power to just spin the wheels on the press and shoot out 6 trillion dollars in the last year or so. And we didn't ask anyone else in the world their permission for us to do that. We devalued every dollar that anyone ever had.

Quote: petroglyph

I saw earlier that we printed 1.9 trillion dollars last week. The guy says, first we should look at how large a number a trillion is. I think it is if every second counted as one, it would take us back to 30 thousand years BCE to get to a trillion.

That is an incomprehensible amount of power to just spin the wheels on the press and shoot out 6 trillion dollars in the last year or so. And we didn't ask anyone else in the world their permission for us to do that. We devalued every dollar that anyone ever had.

There is a movie on the Lehman Brothers collapse where the Hank Paulson character says how just a few years back you never saw such numbers. Now those big numbers are seeming small. And the worst part is Biden is talking about a second stimulus.

Get your money into other currencies. Get it into real property. Get it into stocks that will survive an inflation. There has never been anything like this. And all for what? A virus with a 99.5% survival rate?

Quote:

Will we see an empire in the next few decades?

China would be the only real candidate to be able to pull it off. However you can argue that China traditionally has never sought more than regional hegemony. There's the fact that they had much better means and opportunity to settle the Americas, etc, but actually shut down initial exploration projects ... I think Mr. Martin brought that up in a different thread

Iran and ISIL* would be candidates as far as ambition, but they are too opposed to pull it off in a few decades. ISIL doesn't really have its own country in a proper way, though for a while there you might have been able to argue they did

*I'm a frustrated hold-out with the actually fairly dead initiative to not use 'ISIS' for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Isis can mean too many other things, for example Wikipedia goes automatically to the Egyptian goddess, not Islamic State. The list of other potential meanings is quite large, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis_(disambiguation)

Quote: petroglyph

I saw earlier that we printed 1.9 trillion dollars last week.

Not literally "print". He means "create". In the entire fiscal year 2020, only 23% of the banknotes printed were $100 denomination, but if every single banknote printed was the $100 denomintion it would only amount to $0.58 trillion dollars over the entire year.

When you see those images of German hyperinflation between the world wars you have to realize that we are far beyond that level. We couldn't even print that much money unless we restore the $1000 banknote.

Quote: odiousgambit

China would be the only real candidate to be able to pull it off. However you can argue that China traditionally has never sought more than regional hegemony. There's the fact that they had much better means and opportunity to settle the Americas, etc, but actually shut down initial exploration projects]

The Chinese were certainly expected to discover Europe if they had not shut down operations. Sailing across the Pacific was still a daunting task not done for 28 years after Colombus's first voyage to America.

The Portuguese controlled Cape Verde Island which was an ultra convenient place to restock on their way to Brazil. Once Cabral discovered Brazil 8 years after Colombus, they could do that voyage with the equivalent difficulty of sailing the length of the Mediterranean Sea. The longest stretch between ports was about half the longest stretch of Colombus's first voyage. It was a lot less than the distances the Chinese would have travelled to reach the Americas.

Perhaps we will see a new empire under the name of caliphate.

Quote: AZDuffman

There is a movie on the Lehman Brothers collapse where the Hank Paulson character says how just a few years back you never saw such numbers. Now those big numbers are seeming small. And the worst part is Biden is talking about a second stimulus.

Get your money into other currencies. Get it into real property. Get it into stocks that will survive an inflation. There has never been anything like this. And all for what? A virus with a 99.5% survival rate?

The collapse was already happening when Sars 2 arrived. The useful crisis

Reading the paper this morning, our local superintendent from Kingman was speaking of the 41 million dollars Kingman will receive in stimulus money. He said it is just a waste. When asked why he doesn't just give it back, he said it wouldn't do any good. It is frightening really, helicopter dropping tons of cash that the county's don't even need. This is going to hurt the poor folks the most. Inflation is going to be barbaric. It is already several multiples of the cpi estimate.

I didn't know what to do, so I went cash, thinking it will be easiest for my heirs, taxes already paid. A friend of mine that recently had to distribute his fathers trust said, "if anyone loves their kids, they will have their estate plan in place". Cleaning up his fathers estate took months.

I'm considering some "no motto" St. Gaudens single/double eagles, thinking those coins have a 3 way value? The SEC is sniffing around Ethereum to much for me to be comfortable there. So, BTC it is probably, that and cash. When this flips, the state will still be there, and the easiest way to find a taxpayer is right at his door.

I should probably turn this house to cash also, and when they come to haul me off, be late on the rent.

Quote: Pacomartin

Not literally "print". He means "create".

Yes, create. I've been using print synonymously with money creating. Handheld money is going out of style.

I never thought gold would be challenged as the money of international settlements, but Bitcoin is rising in market cap. By illegally manipulating the price of gold downward, they may have caused a problem that they don't know how to fix?

The moneymen are going to have to do something about Bitcoin or lose control of money creation ,"at will".

Quote: petroglyph

The collapse was already happening when Sars 2 arrived. The useful crisis

Reading the paper this morning, our local superintendent from Kingman was speaking of the 41 million dollars Kingman will receive in stimulus money. He said it is just a waste. When asked why he doesn't just give it back, he said it wouldn't do any good. It is frightening really, helicopter dropping tons of cash that the county's don't even need. This is going to hurt the poor folks the most. Inflation is going to be barbaric. It is already several multiples of the cpi estimate.

It will clobber the poor but they will again be suckers thinking Biden is looking out for them. I close on a rental unit next week, hopefully that is a hedge for me. If we go full Weimar maybe I pay it off with what is today the cost of a sushi dinner. If we even relive the 1970s the rent will triple or so.

Put your BTC and ETH into a digital wallet and have an escape plan. Carry it out. Or learn to use a paper wallet.