The collapse of antiquity : Greece and Rome as civilization's oligarchic turning point
Michael Hudson (Autor)
"Rome's collapse was the forerunner of the debt crises, economic polarization and austerity caused by subsequent Western oligarchies. The West's pro-creditor laws and ideology inherited from Rome make repeated debt crises transferring control of property and government to financial oligarchies inevitable. Classical antiquity's great transition to the modern world lay in replacing kingship not with democracies but with oligarchies having a pro-creditor legal philosophy. That philosophy permits creditors to draw wealth, and thereby political power, into their own hands, without regard for restoring economic balance and long-term viability as occurred in the Ancient Near East through Clean Slates. Rome's legacy to subsequent Western civilization is thus the structure of creditor oligarchies, not democracy in the sense of social structures and policies that promote widespread prosperity." -- Back cover
Libro impreso, English, 2023
ISLET-Verlag, [Dresden, Germany], 2023