what destroys empires, page-6

Volt,
A good book on this is 'the Grunch of Giants' by Buckminster Fuller (of Bucky Balls, Geodesic domes etc fame), the role of corporations and the USD as a standard. I didn't agree with everything but it does make you think about things that you may have not before. It seems the last vestiges of Cold War ppolicy are clinging for dear life and trying to take the economy that supported it with them. It was the loans, cheap labour and increase in the money supply during WW2 that made the 50s and the USD as a global standard such a boom time. It was an entirely unfair and outdated advantage soon after. They have used and abused the system and the further they put off changing it the worse it will be.

They definitely got it wrong when they said wars are good for the economy. Staying out of wars and mobilising cheap labour when you become involved is the key. This is clearly not the case in the Iraq, Afghanistan wars. China has pretty much been doing that even though they aren't involved in wars atm.

Genghis was pretty good at setting up the empire because ha had a roving army that pillaged but didn't really like setting up in cities. They ruled the empire by intimidation they would come back and slaughter the town again. Successive Khans really started to manage the Empire with barracks and it started to become a drain.