"Madness is something rare in individuals — but in groups, parties, peoples and ages, it is the rule." 

—Friedrich Nietzsche

"Great Civilizations are never conquered.  They commit suicide."

—Arnold Toynbee

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then this one you'll find at this link perfectly fleshes out the quotes above.  It shows a young David Stockman, budget director for President Reagan, jousting with the Gipper in the Oval Office.  The year was 1981.  The point of contention: the U.S. of A. was about to observe an ominous landmark.  After 189 years of national existence, our federal debt was about to reach and exceed the staggering sum of 1 trillion dollars.

Fast-forward some 41 years.  To our horror, we learn that in relatively short order, we have added an astronomical 30 trillion more to that staggering sum, with multi-trillion dollar "COVID" deficits being our most recent contribution to this madness.  For those of us who have been reality-deprived in this gaseous age of narrative-spinning, let that sink in good and deep.  What took 189 years of our nation's fiscal existence to accomplish, we now routinely exceed in a year or less.

The inevitable consequence of this insanity is now and finally upon us: inflation, perhaps soon to be inflation of the hyper variety.  This, I believe, is where the wily Mr. Putin — and his Sino-Rasputin partner Chairman Xi — see their opportunity to drive a fatal dagger deep into the heart of America and the West.

The Western media and political class have been absolutely giddy of late over the supposedly ruinous sanctions we are visiting upon the hapless Hun Putin and his henchmen.  Far less is said about the retaliatory cards that Russia, and behind it China, hold.  But we'll feel it soon enough in our wallets as gas inexorably rises north of $10 per gallon and food prices double or more.  For in addition to being one of the world's largest suppliers of oil, Russia is the largest supplier of fertilizer, the "mother's milk" of modern agriculture.  The Russians just announced they are suspending all shipments of said commodity out of their country.  Added to that, Ukraine is also one of the world's leading exporters of wheat, corn, and other critical foodstuffs, the export of which looks soon to be controlled by Russia.

With a $31-trillion debt and real inflation currently well into the double digits, it's not hard to imagine the United States, in the wake of these shortages, falling into a calamitous recession or depression.  When that happens, we will need to pump even more fiat money into the economy to stanch the bleeding.  That's a process that will further undermine the value of the American greenback.

This is a chapter from a playbook that Putin knows well.  For it was the same strategy that another Vladimir — last name Lenin — used to destroy the middle class of tsarist Russia, paving the way for the Bolsheviks to assume power.  "The worse, the better" was the euphemism he famously coined to describe the ruinous power of inflation.

So could it be that we find history repeating itself?  That could well be our fate if inflation rises and persists to the point that the dollar loses its place as the world's reserve currency.

Image: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay, Pixabay License.