Decline of Empires

[sgarg]

@mattster, you present your case well. But I am afraid the data is not on your side.
I agree that USA is a "softer" empire compared to some previous ones but it is not dramatically different.

 

[sgarg]

As long as US continues to be THE MAGNET for best of human intellect, there is no competing with US. And, I see no signs of US becoming any lesser attractive than it has been.

All successful empires are magnets of intellectuals. The Anglo-American empire has been same. It will still collapse. The intellectuals are just part of the machinery. Everybody suffers when an empire collapses.

Many NRIs have returned to India in the last few years, due to the reason that they are no longer comfortable with what they see in USA. A significant part of India's growth is driven by investment by NRIs.

 

[prohumanity]

Peter...I am an obejective observer..I say what I see..I am not tied to any particular group of nations...I do still think that you are almost married to west and is heavily positively prejudiced in favor of West. US is not all good OR all bed. You can be shot dead in 10 seconds by a white cop if you are walking down the street and happen to be black skinned. In US, if you or loved one gets sick with a serious illness, your house can go on foreclosure and you can become bankrupt very fast. Lawyers are rampant here like hungry vultures who make sure they eat up last thread of flesh you have.
Your American wife will not shed one tear if you can not get a job or unable to work...she will be gone in an eye blink. If you are alone and OLD, you will be at the mercy of some crude, rude nursing aides who sometimes, hit you with knuckles, curse and yell at you, make fun of you and even push you so you fall down and sent to hospital so they can get some rest themselves.. You spend half of your life's income on your childs education but when he gets his degree, he applies to thousand places and can't get a job, starts doing drugs in your home and makes your life miserable ..it happens here all the time. US is not a paradise of your dreams. But, I understand, sitting in Kolkata ...it might seem like a paradise to you. Bright shining light, tall skyscrapers, naked women, people lying on beach having fun ...almost like paradise..right? Sorry, thats' just the adverstisement. Grasss looks really green from dirty, filthy communist city of Kolkata where mountains of garbage stink because your communist union guys are busy shiouting "Aamar dabhi dete hi hobe..Inqulab zindabad."
I said that US is undoubtedly in decline ...absolutely ...I only differ about the time line...I think US will become like what UK is today...in about 20 to 30 years. Jobs will be scares esp for minorities and new immigrants. Opportunities will gradually decline and income for most people will slowly decrease over next two -three decades. Not disintegration, not falling apart...JUST SLOW MOTION DECLINE.

 

[amoy]

With all its resilience America will remain the sole "empire" (or superpower, beacon in other words). It's quite visible in Asia Pacific, a whole lot of allies the Philippines, S.Korea Japan and... clustering around America for the sake of both security and economy. Even China, who allegedly challenges America, is working with the world order the US has structured up to now. Despite contentions for more shareholding and more say within the "Company A", China is also a beneficiary in fact of American policing - e.g. Chinese investment in Afghanistan, and oil drilling in post-Saddam Iraq - kind of free-loading.

 

[mattster]

@mattster, you present your case well. But I am afraid the data is not on your side.
I agree that USA is a "softer" empire compared to some previous ones but it is not dramatically different.

There is something else I forgot to add in my post.

In the US growth is driven from bottom up. Let me give you an example:

If a big university want to build a new wing for research - they go out and start a fundraising initiative and raise a billion dollars from the Alumni.
The Alumni contribute millions and sometimes even hundreds of millions of dollars. They dont have to go and line up ask the State governor or the federal government for funds. They may get some funds from the state if they are a public school , but mostly they raise most of the funds on their own. This is because people here especially those who are wealthy give back to their community. They reinvest in their own community....they dont send it to the Cayman Islands or the Swiss Bank like a lot of the wealthy in India or China do. Its not like India or China where you have to go and beg the CM or the Center for funds and then you have to spend 10-20% of those funds paying off the CM and his cronies and his goondas to even get the project started.

The billionaires here dont just hand over their fortunes to their punk kids. A lot of them have commited to give away most of their fortunes before they die. Go to any major big-time university and you see the names of people on the business/engineering school buildings.

Unlike India and China - nobody here is waiting for the next President to solve their problems. They are solving things themselves at the grass-roots levels.
Contrast that with India and China - The whole of India is holding its breath and praying that Modi can change the country, reduce corruption, increase efficiency, and kick-start the economy and get the country back on track.......if Modi with his mandate cant do it, then who can ?

China on the other hand despite its capitalist economy and socialist politics is still a top driven economy. Everything is decided by the 6 guys in the CPC Standing Politburo and their underlings. To be fair, they have done a masterful job so far in terms of managing the economy......but its not a bottom driven economy.
The Chinese like Indians have to pray that Xi Jinping and this small group of senior leaders dont screw up.

Government here in the US really doesnt do much anymore in the US. Even the US postal service is being privatized. The only thing that government does is control the military and pay out social-security, run regulatory bodies like the SEC, EPA, Fed, and deal with foreign affairs. If the Republicans have their way - government will do even less.

 

[pmaitra]

Can we please discuss the signs and/or reasons why massive empires, like Egypt, Rome, Carthage, etc., disappeared?

I am not saying what is being discussed is bad, but I would welcome a bit of diversity.

For those who have not seen the video in the opening post, this thread is not exclusively meant for one empire.

 

[TrueSpirit1]

All said & done, US is already growing faster than any large economy except China & India. Some high-tech firms have already started shifting their high-end manufacturing base back to US. If anything, US in becoming more & more independent,especially in the energy security paradigm.

Unless something really drastic happens (like the Interstellar scenario), US is not going anywhere in next 2-3 decades. As long as its entrepreneurship zeal, inherent competitiveness in the system, & it's capability to attract the best of human capital remains intact, competing with US (whether Soft power or Hard Power) will be a tough call.

And, lest you forget, when US goes down, many nations (even those outside NATO & its allies) would get equally affected, especially those for whom US is their biggest export market. No prizes for guessing who would that be

 

[jouni]

Remember the coming revolutionary in robotics, that together with energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in the future means that gap between west and rest of the world will likely not close anytime soon. That is why I am trying to tell that India should invest in school system reform. Low skill level jobs in the future will be done by robots.

 

[TrueSpirit1]

Peter...I am an obejective observer..I say what I see..I am not tied to any particular group of nations...I do still think that you are almost married to west and is heavily positively prejudiced in favor of West. US is not all good OR all bed. You can be shot dead in 10 seconds by a white cop if you are walking down the street and happen to be black skinned. In US, if you or loved one gets sick with a serious illness, your house can go on foreclosure and you can become bankrupt very fast. Lawyers are rampant here like hungry vultures who make sure they eat up last thread of flesh you have.
Your American wife will not shed one tear if you can not get a job or unable to work...she will be gone in an eye blink. If you are alone and OLD, you will be at the mercy of some crude, rude nursing aides who sometimes, hit you with knuckles, curse and yell at you, make fun of you and even push you so you fall down and sent to hospital so they can get some rest themselves.. You spend half of your life's income on your childs education but when he gets his degree, he applies to thousand places and can't get a job, starts doing drugs in your home and makes your life miserable ..it happens here all the time. US is not a paradise of your dreams. But, I understand, sitting in Kolkata ...it might seem like a paradise to you. Bright shining light, tall skyscrapers, naked women, people lying on beach having fun ...almost like paradise..right? Sorry, thats' just the adverstisement. Grasss looks really green from dirty, filthy communist city of Kolkata where mountains of garbage stink beca
use your communist union guys are busy shiouting "Aamar dabhi dete hi hobe..Inqulab zindabad."

Awesome narration. :thumb:

I said that US is undoubtedly in decline ...absolutely ...I only differ about the time line...I think US will become like what UK is today...in about 20 to 30 years. Jobs will be scares esp for minorities and new immigrants. Opportunities will gradually decline and income for most people will slowly decrease over next two -three decades. Not disintegration, not falling apart...JUST SLOW MOTION DECLINE.

Whatever you stated above has no correlation whatsoever with the conclusion you have drawn here. US was always like that, consumerist to the extreme, with a individualistic & utility-based mindset. That has been one of their many strengths. And, unlike what happened in UK, Japan & some recession-prone countries, family-system is far from collapsed in US. Once economically secure, most people in US still look fwd. to getting married & dream of having babies. It still reeks of optimism there (except some isolated pockets like Detroit/Louisiana), unlike most of the developed world.

Care to mention some reasons why would US start collapsing ?

 

[TrueSpirit1]

Remember the coming revolutionary in robotics, that together with energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in the future means that gap between west and rest of the world will likely not close anytime soon. That is why I am trying to tell that India should invest in school system reform. Low skill level jobs in the future will be done by robots.

India should definitely overhaul its education system which benefits a few, and inhibits innovation, free-thinking mindset. I also agree that gap between US & rest of the world is not going to close anytime soon. However, I would beseech you not conflate US with "the West". The West had its time but now, it is past sell-by date. It won't hold for long, purely because of social & economic reasons. EU would never ever come out of recession & there are limits to what Germany & France can do. UK is already on the run.

US is way more competitive & has fared much better than the so-called West (EU). In short, your so-called West simply does not hold a candle to what US stands for & is capable of. US alone is what remains of the West & US has long way to go.

Regarding your robotics thing: India had skipped the Industrial & automobile revolution, thanks to the erstwhile polity. We thought we could leapfrog by jumping on the IT bandwagon & bridge the technology gap. It has barely worked for us. For a nation of our size, we simply cannot do without manufacturing (& we DO NOT have the tech. base to leapfrog to high-end manufacturing) & we need vocational trainings. While education-reforms are essential & urgent, anything in isolation does not works & a multi-pronged approach is being worked out by the govt.

Rest assured that when it comes to energy-efficient technologies, India would always figure among top 5 nations. Just check the automobile scene in India & where things are heading. We already compete with the best, in terms of energy-efficiency.

As things stand, in terms of "installed wind power capacity", India ranks 5th, as of now but with way higher avg. growth rate (for last 5 years) than 3rd & 4th ranked Germany & Spain, which simply alludes to the fact that India would rank 3rd within a few years,. China & US would continue to lead India for few decades.

Source: http://www.gwec.net/ & Wind power by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyway, despite our pathetic education system, the startup-scene in Bangalore is comparable to most exciting hotspots in the world (save, the original Silicon Valley). Our entrepreneur zeal has already been unleashed & there is no looking back now.

 

[jouni]

Do not write off EU yet, we are still worlds number one in GDP and IMHO quality of life ( no racism and riots here ). Not to mention, that today EU announced 315Bn Euro investments in growth! WE´LL BE BACK...if we ever were gone

BBC News - Juncker reveals giant EU investment plan

 

[sgarg]

There is something else I forgot to add in my post.

In the US growth is driven from bottom up. Let me give you an example:

The billionaires here dont just hand over their fortunes to their punk kids. A lot of them have commited to give away most of their fortunes before they die. Go to any major big-time university and you see the names of people on the business/engineering school buildings.

Unlike India and China - nobody here is waiting for the next President to solve their problems. They are solving things themselves at the grass-roots levels.

Government here in the US really doesnt do much anymore in the US. Even the US postal service is being privatized. The only thing that government does is control the military and pay out social-security, run regulatory bodies like the SEC, EPA, Fed, and deal with foreign affairs. If the Republicans have their way - government will do even less.

I said earlier - US has many positives. You have counted the positives. I have lived in USA and I like Americans.

This does not change the fact that USA as an empire is spent.

US external debt = 17.7 trillion
US public debt = 12.6 trillion

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3b/USDebt.png/300px-USDebt.png

At the end of FY 2015 the total government debt in the United States, including federal, state, and local, is expected to be $21.897 trillion.

Government Debt in the United States - Debt Clock

FY2013 income was 80% of outlays, which is another way of saying we had a 20% deficit. The federal government collected $2 trillion, 774 billion and borrowed $680 billion on the open market by selling U.S. Treasury securities, to pay for $3 trillion, 454 billion in spending.

-----------------------------

All the above explains that US is in a non-sustainable financial situation. I call this burden of the empire. The cost of maintaining a very large military footprint, financial and military aid to allies, etc. has burdened very productive and very competitive US economy.

-----------------------------

The debt graph is rising fast with no end in sight. The need to keep peace worldwide has propped up other States but reduced the competitiveness of most American industries. The ability to pay debt is not increasing with the rise in debt.

 

[Peter]

Pala Empire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ramapala was the last strong Pala ruler. After his death, a rebellion broke out in Assam during his son Kumarapala's reign. The rebellion was crushed by Vaidyadeva, but after Kumarapala's death, Vaidyadeva practically created a separate kingdom.[12] According to Ramacharitam, Kumarapala's son Gopala III was murdered by his uncle Mandapala. During Madanapala's rule, the Varmans in east Bengal declared independence, and the Eastern Gangas renewed the conflict in Orissa. Madanapala captured Munger from the Gahadavalas, but was defeated by Vijayasena, who gained control of southern and eastern Bengal. A ruler named Govindapala ruled over the Gaya district around 1162 CE, but there is no concrete evidence about his relationship to the imperial Palas. The Pala dynasty was replaced by the Sena dynasty

After the death of Devapala, the Pala kingdom was on its way to decline. Till the rule of Devapala, Bengal ranked high among the important powers in the history of ancient India. He was succeeded by Vigrahapala I, whose short reign was devoid of any important event. After him, his son Narayanapala ascended the throne in 854 A.D. He showed little interest in military conquests because he was a peace loving and religious person.

During the rule of Narayanapala, the Pala kingdom fell prey to the invading armies of the Rashtrakutas in 860 A.D. He was thoroughly defeated. The Pala Empire also could not escape the invasion of the Pratiharas who dealt a severe blow to the body-politic of the kingdom. Bhoja I of the Pratihara kingdom and his son Mahendrapala succeeded in seizing Magadha from Narayanapala. The Paharpur Pillar Inscription attests to the conquests by the Pratihara rulers. Taking advantage of the weakening condition of the Pala kingdom, the rulers of Kamarupa and the Sailodbhaba dynasty of Orissa threw of their allegiance to the Palas and declared their independence.

However at the end of his rule Narayanapala was able to recover North Bengal and South Bihar from the Pratiharas. After a long rule of 53 years, Narayanapala was succeeded by Rajyapala who ruled for a short period. He was succeeded by his son Gopala II who in turn was succeeded by Vigrahapala.

The rule of these Pala rulers was characterized by increase in the weakening of the Pala Empire. Added to this, the kingdom was ravaged by the armies of the Chandellas, Kalachuris and Kambojas at regular intervals.

Pala dynasty regained some of its lost glory during the rule of Mahipala I. who ruled from 995AD to 1043AD. He is rightly called the second founder of the Pala Dynasty. After the death of Ramapala, the last important Pala king, the Pala dynasty was nearing its end. After the death of Ramapala in 1130 Kumarapala became the next Pala ruler. He was succeed by Gopala III and Madanapala. Gradually the Pala kingdom went into oblivion.

 

[mattster]

India should definitely overhaul its education system which benefits a few, and inhibits innovation, free-thinking mindset. I also agree that gap between US & rest of the world is not going to close anytime soon. However, I would beseech you not conflate US with "the West". The West had its time but now, it is past sell-by date. It won't hold for long, purely because of social & economic reasons. EU would never ever come out of recession & there are limits to what Germany & France can do. UK is already on the run.

US is way more competitive & has fared much better than the so-called West (EU). In short, your so-called West simply does not hold a candle to what US stands for & is capable of. US alone is what remains of the West & US has long way to go.

Regarding your robotics thing: India had skipped the Industrial & automobile revolution, thanks to the erstwhile polity. We thought we could leapfrog by jumping on the IT bandwagon & bridge the technology gap. It has barely worked for us. For a nation of our size, we simply cannot do without manufacturing (& we DO NOT have the tech. base to leapfrog to high-end manufacturing) & we need vocational trainings. While education-reforms are essential & urgent, anything in isolation does not works & a multi-pronged approach is being worked out by the govt.

Rest assured that when it comes to energy-efficient technologies, India would always figure among top 5 nations. Just check the automobile scene in India & where things are heading. We already compete with the best, in terms of energy-efficiency.

As things stand, in terms of "installed wind power capacity", India ranks 5th, as of now but with way higher avg. growth rate (for last 5 years) than 3rd & 4th ranked Germany & Spain, which simply alludes to the fact that India would rank 3rd within a few years,. China & US would continue to lead India for few decades.

Source: ABOUT - GWEC & Wind power by country - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyway, despite our pathetic education system, the startup-scene in Bangalore is comparable to most exciting hotspots in the world (save, the original Silicon Valley). Our entrepreneur zeal has already been unleashed & there is no looking back now.

I think you hit the nail on the spot in the last section of your post.

The key to India's emergence is to create a transparent enough system where entrepreneurs can do their own thing regardless of the politics of the day or the party in power. Indians dont need a savior PM or the Government to save them. They just need a clean, efficient, government and clean PM who will just get out of the way and let the restless energy of the educated young people lead the way.

Unfortunately that's easier said than done......but I remain cautiously optimistic - mainly in Narendra Modi, India might just have the most dynamic PM in decades.

 

[sgarg]

I think you hit the nail on the spot in the last section of your post.

The key to India's emergence is to create a transparent enough system where entrepreneurs can do their own thing regardless of the politics of the day or the party in power. Indians dont need a savior PM or the Government to save them. They just need a clean, efficient, government and clean PM who will just get out of the way and let the restless energy of the educated young people lead the way.

Unfortunately that's easier said than done......but I remain cautiously optimistic - mainly in Narendra Modi, India might just have the most dynamic PM in decades.

India is bogged down by its large population which spreads the resources around. The productive have to feed the non-productive. My estimate says that 50% of India's population has only marginal impact on the economy.

Every government confronts the same problem for which there are no ready or easy solutions. The government cannot apply tough methods in a democratic system.

The education system is IMPROVING. The number of children receiving good quality school education is steadily on the rise. The facilities for college education have been ramped up massively in the last two decades. India no longer has a shortage of technical manpower. The "quality" of manpower is something regularly flogged by some industrialists. As a person running a small company for last 10 years, I have never found a serious problem with quality. The fact is that industry has to develop specific skills. No education system can provide comprehensive skills to industry.

India's problems are structural - corruption, slow decision making, regulatory overload, taxes. An efficient government makes a lot of difference in India.

You should pay close attention to USA. I have seen a lot of problems in USA. While you are quick to point out positives, you hardly write any negatives.

My analysis of USA is that USA is sliding rather fast. The "growth" of last few years is pure fudging - an outcome of massive money printing and aggressive foreign policy.

 

[amoy]

One of key indicators of the rise and decline of an imperial might is how well the empire is able to enforce and back circulation of its currency . Nowadays we know US$ is the most important reserve and anchor currency around the globe. Even in China Hong Kong Dollar and Macau Pataca are pegged to USD.

List of historical currencies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ROMAN

Later, during the Roman Empire, there was a division in the authority of minting coins of particular metals. While numerous local authorities were allowed to mint bronze coins, no local authority was authorized to strike silver coins. On the authority to mint coins Dio Cassius writes, "None of the cities should be allowed to have its own separate coinage or a system of weights and measures; they should all be required to use ours." Only Rome itself struck precious metal coinage, and the mint was centralized in the city of Rome during the Republic and during the early centuries of the Empire. Some Eastern provinces struck coins in silver, but these coins were local denominations that were intended to circulate and to fill only a local need. The issue of bronze coins can be interpreted to be of little value, and of little importance to the central government of Rome, since expenditures of the state were large and could be more easily paid with coins of high value. It is known that during the first century AD an as could only buy a pound of bread or a litre of cheap wine (or according to Pompeiian graffiti, the services of a cheap prostitute). The importance and the need for smaller denominations for the population of Rome was probably high. Evidence of this can be seen in the numerous imitations of imperial Claudian bronzes that, although probably not authorized by Rome, appear to have been tolerated and were struck in large numbers. Since the government required coins mainly as a means to pay its army and officials, it had little impetus or desire to fulfill the need for bronze coins.

CHINA

The banliang was the first unified currency of the Chinese empire, introduced by the first emperor Qin Shi Huang around 210 BC. It was round with a square hole in the middle. Before that date, a variety of coins were used in China, usually in the form of blades (knife money) or other implements, though round coins with square holes were used by the state of Zhou before it was extinguished by Qin in 249 BCE.

The banliang corresponds to a "half tael" (半兩), or twelve zhu (銖, about 0.67 grams). It typically weighs between ten and six grams, roughly corresponding to the Greek stater.

The standardization of currency with this round coinage was part of a broader plan to unify weights, measures or axle width during the Qin empire.

 

[pmaitra]

@amoy, thank you for posting on topic.

 

[sgarg]

@amoy, I am not an authority in Chinese history but I know the major cause of failure of empires are:

1. Spreading military resources too thin
2. Taking on too many expenses far beyond the fiscal capacity of the empire

USA is a great country. Its longevity as an empire is doubtful though. I have several reasons for that. The most important is tax collection. The empire runs by collecting taxes. Here USA does the opposite. USA gives guarantee for Pakistan's security, and then gives money to Pakistan for maintaining its military. In a true empire, it should have been the opposite - that Pakistan should pay for American security guarantee.

Americans have repeatedly taken on expenses of other countries. Americans have taken in a lot of non-productive people. None of this help American empire.

 

[pmaitra]

@sgarg, the US collects money from all over the world, by virtue of the Dollar, together with, printing more of it out of thin air, and distributing it to those it chooses to. Anyone who owns a Dollar bill, gives money to the US. In polite words, the US exports its inflation. In rough words, the US counterfeits its own money. Counterfeit money printing is the founding principle of Fractional Reserve Banking.

 

[pmaitra]

Crossposting:

First, read the post by @amoy, understand, and appreciate the Roman Empire's Currency and the contemporary local currencies. Today's equivalent to the Roman Empire's Currency (Dinari, was it?) is the US Dollar, and the local currencies equivalents would be today's national currencies of different countries.

Thank you, both of you, for giving your thoughts on this subject.

Anyway, here is my take home message:

A weaker currency encourages exports, but discourages imports. Now, coming to what @sob has stated, it is true that if the RMB is allowed to float free, Chinese exports to the US will dwindle. One things no note here is, that with the decline in the value of the US Dollar, even if there was no deflation of the RMB, Chinese exports will continue to get less competitive. This is the very reason why India continues to inflate the INR.

Regarding transparency, yes, there is lack of transparency with PRC. With the US, it is not much different. There is lack of trust with the US Dollar, ever since the US reneged on the Bretton Woods agreement. Economic crisis in the US have a ripple effect all over the world only because international trade is bound to the US Dollar, for most part. This allows the US to exports it inflation.

On the comment by @no smoking, about currency appreciation with a high trade surplus, I agree, and I think his remedies are correct.

How the US exports inflation, can be better understood this way, but before understanding the chart, one should understand the terms:

• TC - Trading Currency money supply, a key factor in boosting GDP.
• TCC - Trading Currency Collateral, such as Gold used to back up that currency.
• QE - Quantitative Easing (essentially, printing money out of thin air).
• Wealth per TC - The amount of the collateral, in this case, gold, one unit of TC can purchase.
• TC Country - Country that controls the TC.
• ~TC Countries - Other countries, that own TC as forex reserves.
• DfBW - Departure from an agreement, such as Bretton-Woods agreement, or any agreement that ties the value of one TC to the collateral.
• The other terms are self explanatory.

YEAR	EVENT	QE	TC	TCC	Wealth per TC	~TC Countries	TC Country	~TC Country Wealth	TC Country Wealth	Wealth Transfer
y+0		0	10000	100	0.01	6000	4000	60	40	0
y+1		0	10000	100	0.01	6000	4000	60	40	0
y+2		0	10000	100	0.01	6000	4000	60	40	0
y+3		0	10000	100	0.01	6000	4000	60	40	0
y+4		0	10000	100	0.01	6000	4000	60	40	0
y+5		0	10000	100	0.01	6000	4000	60	40	0
y+6	DfBW	10	10010	100	0.00999000999000999	6000	4010	59.9400599400599	40.0599400599401	0.059940059940061
y+7	DfBW	10	10020	100	0.00998003992015968	6000	4020	59.8802395209581	40.1197604790419	0.0598204191018539
y+8	DfBW	10	10030	100	0.00997008973080758	6000	4030	59.8205383848455	40.1794616151545	0.0597011361126221
y+9	DfBW	10	10040	100	0.0099601593625498	6000	4040	59.7609561752988	40.2390438247012	0.0595822095466545
y+10	DfBW	10	10050	100	0.00995024875621891	6000	4050	59.7014925373134	40.2985074626866	0.0594636379853739

Of course, many other variables that are in play, have been kept at a constant, to understand how inflation is exported by the US.

Look at how the value of the currency and the wealth transfer is diminishing exponentially. To keep the wealth transfer fixed, or to have a positive rate of change of wealth transfer, the amount of money printed out of thin air must increase exponentially every time there is QE.

@Sakal Gharelu Ustad, please correct me if I am wrong anywhere.