{"podcast":{"title":"The Peter McCormack Show","slug":"the-peter-mccormack-show-525419","podcast_index_feed_id":525419,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/69d4f193b76468caacc5068f","website_url":"https://www.petermccormack.com/","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/69d4f193b76468caacc5068f/show-cover.jpg","author":"Peter McCormack","episode_count":1075,"summary":"The Peter McCormack Show - politics, macro, Bitcoin and AI, long-form interviews. Twice-weekly conversations about money, power, and the shifts reshaping the next decade. Peter McCormack interviews politicians, economists, investors, journalists, founders and Bitcoiners. Past guests include Liz Truss, Lyn Alden, Curtis Yarvin, Matt Goodwin, Mike Green, Balaji Srinivasan, Rupert Lowe, Firas Modad, Scott Horton, Jeff Booth, Connor Leahy, Andrea Miotti, Neema Parvini, Dr Tim Gregory and Simon Dixon. Recurring threads: the debt and inflation endgame, UK political collapse and what comes after, Reform and the populist wave, the Middle East and the American war machine, AI safety and the race for superintelligence, energy and net zero, Bitcoin adoption and policy, and the slow-motion decline of Western institutions. Long-form - most episodes run 60 to 120 minutes. New episodes 2 to 3 times per week. Video on YouTube and Spotify. Host: Peter McCormack, a retired rapper from Bedford, UK, trying to understand this crazy world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-31T06:19:00.527164+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419"},"episode":{"title":"#166 - Freddie New - How Governments Destroy Money and Empires (The Lessons From Rome)","slug":"166-freddie-new-how-governments-destroy-money-and-empires-the-lessons-from-rome","published_at":"2026-04-16T17:42:51+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419/166-freddie-new-how-governments-destroy-money-and-empires-the-lessons-from-rome","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419","url":"https://shows.acast.com/the-peter-mccormack-show/episodes/166-freddie-new-the-death-of-hard-money-the-roman-playbook-f","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/69d4f193b76468caacc5068f/e/69e11f9b23929c3a2ad6d6c7/media.mp3","summary":"Freddie New studied the classics and has spent years obsessing over one question: how does a superpower destroy itself? The answer, he argues, is always the same - it starts with the money. In this conversation we map the fall of Rome directly onto the West today. The Roman denarius lost 97% of its purchasing power over 150 years. The British pound has lost 95% of its in the last century alone. The parallels don't stop there - military overstretch, a dependent population kept loyal by the state, leaders who can't stop the printing even when they know it's killing them. Rome couldn't stop. We can't either. Freddie has read all 1.5 million words of Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. In this conversation he explains what that teaches us about where we are right now - and whether there is a way out. In this episode: •⁠ ⁠How Rome debased the denarius from 100% silver to 3% over 300 years •⁠ ⁠Why currency debasement always starts slowly and why it can never be stopped •⁠ ⁠The eerie similarity between Rome's military dependence and modern welfare states •⁠ ⁠What Diocletian's price controls tell us about every government's response to inflation •⁠ ⁠Why Constantine's hard money reset saved the empire for another generation •⁠ ⁠What hard money offers that fiat never can •⁠ ⁠Whether the West can course correct or whether collapse is now inevitable - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Currency Collapse Starts 00:01:17 - Rome vs Britain 00:05:00 - How Debasement Spreads 00:09:52 - The Soft Default 00:18:02 - The Grift Economy 00:22:18 - The Hollowing Out 00:30:19 - How Rome Worked 00:35:00 - Why Collapse Happens 00:39:08 - Welfar…","meta_description":"Freddie New studied the classics and has spent years obsessing over one question: how does a superpower destroy itself? The answer, he argues, is always t…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4349,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419/episodes/166-freddie-new-how-governments-destroy-money-and-empires-the-lessons-from-rome/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-peter-mccormack-show-525419/166-freddie-new-how-governments-destroy-money-and-empires-the-lessons-from-rome.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}