Dollar's fate written in history

By John Lee
Asia Times

Debt-based monetary systems are inherently unstable. Money is created out of thin air by the banks and lent to government, consumers and businesses. In order to service and repay those debts, the borrowers take on more debts. Asset prices are inflated, and the vicious cycle continues until the debtors are unable to borrow or the banks are unwilling to lend.

At that point the system snaps, everything is sold off, and we have a financial crisis at hand. Here, we examine what happens to equity and currency markets in the aftermath of financial crisis and deduce what will be the likely outcome for the United States as it emerges from the present crisis.

1998: Russia

Declining productivity, an artificially high fixed exchange rate between the rouble and foreign currencies to avoid public turmoil, and a chronic fiscal deficit were the background to Russia's financial meltdown in 1998. The estimated US$5.5 billion economic cost of the first war in Chechnya was also a cause.

(More here.)