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Tacitus, a Roman writer, said that the Roman Empire was built by making slaves out of conquered people who had grown used to living in comfort.
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No matter the historical era, governments have excelled at one thing: debasing their own currency. Rome was no exception, as Roman government excesses required inflation—lots of inflation.
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More than 2,000 years before America’s bailouts and entitlement programs, the ancient Romans experimented with similar schemes. The Roman government rescued failing institutions, canceled personal debts, and spent huge sums on welfare programs. The result wasn’t pretty. Roman politicians picked winners and losers, generally favoring the politically well connected — a practice that’s central to …