In the 1990s, Japan’s economy crashed after a frenzy of debt, speculation, and easy money. Japan’s lost decade now stands as a dire warning to modern economists.
When Matthew wrote his gospel in 85 AD, one pure silver Denarius covered the daily wages of a skilled Roman craftsman. Three hundred years later, the coin had been reduced to a worthless scrap of copper alongside a crumbled empire.
If you happened to be walking around Paris from 1715 to 1722, you would have encountered one of the first experiments with centrally planned banking, paper money, and fractional reserves.