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Debt Is The Biggest Weapon of Mass Destruction.
Yet another reason to destroy the Washington consensus.
Debt compounds.
And the words of Albert Einstein are especially instructive here:
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it. He who doesn’t, pays it
Anyone who owns a credit card knows this and I am no exception. As I write this piece, I shudder every time I get an email from Capital One, reminding me of my obligations and my compounding debt.
And for nation-states, we cannot begin to imagine how much debt has become an instrument which has been wielded powerfully by the former colonizing powers.
To have a clear understanding, we must delve into history.
The 1970s were a turbulent time geopolitically with the Middle East, providing more than its fair share of drama.
The Yom-Kippur war, which was instigated by a coalition of Arab states — Egypt and Syria — on Israel, was roundly defeated within a matter of weeks by the newest kid on the block and the ramifications were swift and felt all around the world.
The organization of petroleum exporting countries — OPEC — announced an oil embargo on the United States and its allies for supporting Israel and the results were…