ECB, policies don't work. Now we finance families, not banks

The Euro has lost value. Now we finance families, not banks

I was rereading the story of the economy of Rome in the third century and I deliberately tried to analyze whether there were any parallels between the serious financial crisis in which the coffers of the Roman Empire found themselves with the growing military expenses it had to sustain and some current realities. In a video from a long time ago the commentator said that the dollar has lost around 95% of its value since 1918 and the euro?

Now I knowingly wanted to make a comparison with the euro to see what came out of it: “Survey of consumerism And alma laboris compares prices in Italy from the lira (2001) to today. For an ice cream cone you spend 224% more, a pizza costs almost double (+93.5%), the bus ticket goes up by +159%. In the same period, salaries grew by +50%. More expensive to eat out: the classic margherita pizza consumed in pizzerias has undergone an increase in price of +93.5%, the cheese-rice ball increased by almost 124%, and the sandwich at the bar even +198.7%.

There breakfast at the bar (cappuccino and croissant) costs 93.3% more, while the coffee break is 55.2% more expensive (however in recent days the price lists of public establishments are undergoing upward adjustments due to the expensive bills). Survey compares prices in Italy from the lira (2001) to today (consumerismo.it) I suggest visiting the site because there is a really interesting table which shows the lira/euro comparisons on many consumer goods and the relative variations in percentage.

Then, I went further and analyzed the debt of the Roman Empireconsidering that at the time there was a kind of “globalization”, obviously in the known and conquered territories, bringing everything back to the present day, here is what came out of it: “Calculate the debt of the Roman Empire in the third century and convert it into dollars or any other modern currency is a very difficult task and subject to many uncertainties.

This is because the fiscal policies and monetary of the Roman Empire were very different from modern ones and there is no precise way to calculate inflation or other exchange rates over the centuries. Furthermore, in the 3rd century the Roman Empire was in the midst of a serious economic and political crisis. The Roman currency system was collapsing and public debt had become a huge problem. The Roman Empire was a union of many different regions and provinces; therefore, the debt it would have been divided into different parts and perhaps even into different currencies. However, to give a general idea, one could take into consideration an estimated data relating to the last years of the Roman Empire. According to some estimates, the debt of the Roman Empire at the end of the 4th century may have been around 1.6 billion gold soli, which was the main currency of the Empire at the time.

By converting gold solids into current dollars, the price of gold today would be taken as a reference. The price of gold is variable and changes over time, so this estimate would only be approximate. At the time of writing, the price of gold is around $1,800 per ounce. With these estimates, the debt of the Roman Empire in III century could equate to approximately 2.88 trillion current dollars (1.6 billion gold solids * 1,800 dollars per ounce / 31.1 grams per ounce).

Upon closer inspection, it was a monstrous figure for the time and therefore what had been the reference currency for the Empire for centuries disappeared. I would like to remind you that USA they just passed the $34 trillion mark in public debt. I am aware of what I have reported, but numbers are numbers and the refrain of 2% (which has nothing scientific about it) is of little use if the current monetary policies of the European Central Bank that are applied do not work, jeopardizing savings, state accounts and above all the real economy.

Smart question: why instead of financing the banks are not directly financed families and the companies? To put it simply, “the ECB has the power to print all the money it wants” (in this case the statement is not mine)! The final question is: what should we expect in the near future? I close with a thought attributed to Albert Einstein: “madness lies in always doing the same thing, expecting different results”.

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