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Ancient Rome survived high inflation, and we can, too
The economic challenges then look similar to our own – with a big dose of brutality.
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The bedrocks of western civilisation saw everything, from currency debasement to bank runs and primitive forms of quantitative easing.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Daniel Moss
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Worried that inflation is coming down too gradually? The Romans had a not-so-subtle solution: Anyone suspected of ratcheting up prices faced execution. If you’re currently anxious about declining fertility across today’s major economies, they had an answer for that, too: Celibacy was discouraged among women, Vestal Virgins excluded. Offenders might forfeit their inheritance.
Few contemporary economic gripes that we live with today were absent in antiquity. The ancients saw it all. And had it worse. We ought to stop catastrophising. Our current problems are both manageable and, in some ways, recognisable. Survivable, too.
