The 8-Stage Debt Cycle: How Every Empire Borrows, Inflates, and Defaults — The U.S. Is at Stage 6

In 1923, bread in Germany cost 200 billion marks. In 2001, Argentina froze every bank account overnight. In 2025, the U.S. national debt hits $36 trillion and interest payments exceed the defense budget. This isn’t random—it’s an 8-stage cycle that every empire follows with mathematical precision.
Ray Dalio documented this pattern across 500+ years of reserve currency empires. Rome did it. Britain did it. Weimar Germany, Argentina, Zimbabwe, Venezuela—they all followed the same sequence. And America is at Stage 6 right now.
In this video, I break down:
The 8 stages of the debt cycle with historical examples
Why the U.S. is definitively at Stage 6 (not Stage 5 or 7)
What triggers Stage 7 (confidence collapse) and Stage 8 (default or hyperinflation)
Specific metrics to watch: debt-to-GDP, Treasury yields, foreign reserve diversification
What you can do to protect yourself before Stage 7 hits