Is there a comparison between modern American political economics and those of the late Roman Empire? Financial crises, wild inflation driven by craven politicians, and the slow decline of commerce were three of several points of intersection. Nihil novi sub sole.
Who knew that we might be able to impute a rough GDP figure to the Romans by measuring and dating shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea?
I wrote this paper in 2010 while studying sovereignty, technology, and global change with Peter Thiel at Stanford.