====== Collected Rants of Mr O ======


===== Romans =====

>Fun historical fact that has nothing to do with contemporary politics...
>After winning the civil war, Julius Caesar time as dictator of Rome was a period of great reform for the city of >Rome. Caesar lowered taxes for citizens, improved public services, and invested in a vast infrastructure building >program that created jobs for the unemployed. He reformed land acts to settle legions that fought on both sides of >the war and expanded the Senate to make room for his political rivals, whom he pardoned, to continue their >careers.
>After the civil there was a debt crisis in Rome caused by the collapse of economic activity because of lack of men >to work that had also borrowed to meet their military obligations. Lenders demanded repayment of loans and real >estate values collapsed. Worse the debtors were being forced to sell themselves into slavery to repay their debts. >This repayment of debt was remitted to the state and contributed to deflation (value of money increased as value >of everything else decreased) and a serious shortage of coinage in circulation as people hoarded cash. Caesar >ordered that property must be accepted for repayment at its pre-war value and reinstated a previous law which >forbade the holding of more than 60,000 sesterces in cash by any one person. Caesar later cancelled all interest >payments due since the beginning of 49 BC and permitted tenants to pay no rent for one year. 
>
>The debt reform affected senators that had borrowed heavily to finance their political careers and the forced sale >of their property caused property values to plummet leaving them without property and still holding enslaving >debt. This would have angered them.

>So a second reform followed where property values were fixed and sales organized by the state. Wealthy Romans that >had loaned money backed by property, were happier without the collapse of property values - they could repay their >debt. Those with money were not allowed to accumulate the property backing the loans for a fraction of it's actual >worth, and sell those in debt to them into slavery for money. This would have angered them.
>The far bigger problem was the ordinary Roman citizens who had fallen into debt by doing the "right thing" and >fighting during the wars. They were being forced to sell themselves into slavery to repay their debts having lost >everything. Caesar attempted to do the right thing and passed a law that allowed them to repay their debts using >inflation, or cheaper, government-issued coins.

>This attempt to spare the average Roman citizen angered all of the wealthy Romans as it was a direct transfer of >their wealth to the citizens. 

>Caesar was assassinated, stabbed 23 times, by 60 conspirators in the Senate on the 15th of March 44 BC.
===== Level 2 Headline =====