And now, the United States is following that identical sequence.
This documentary traces the collapse pattern across four empires and two millennia — from the Roman denarius that went from pure silver to 5% silver as the empire fell, to the Spanish dollar that drowned in its own inflation despite endless New World wealth.
The British pound that lost reserve currency status at Bretton Woods after two world wars bankrupted the nation, to the U.S. dollar that left gold in 1971 and has been printed into progressive weakness ever since. The pattern is a seven-stage sequence: dominance, overextension, deficit spending, currency debasement, inflation, loss of confidence, collapse.
Rome followed it over two centuries. Spain followed it and defaulted four times in forty years. Britain followed it and lost a quarter of the Earth’s surface in three decades. And the United States has now completed five stages and is entering the sixth. Every empire believed it was different.
That its military was too strong.
That its economy was too advanced.
That the old rules didn’t apply.
Rome thought the denarius was eternal.
Spain thought endless silver made it invincible.
Britain thought the pound would remain the world’s reserve currency forever.
All were wrong. All collapsed within decades of the warning signs appearing. And every warning sign that preceded their collapses — military overextension, unsustainable debt, currency printing, rising inflation, declining reserve status — is present in the United States right now.
Is the dollar entering its final phase as the world’s reserve currency?
Can the U.S. break a pattern that has held for two thousand years across four empires? Or is the seventh stage — collapse — inevitable?