The Timeless Investor Show When Paper Money Destroys Nations: France’s Assignat Collapse
In 1790, revolutionary France thought it had solved its financial crisis by printing a new kind of paper money — the Assignat — backed by confiscated church land.
Within five years, it destroyed the French economy, vaporized the middle class, and set the stage for dictatorship.
In this episode, Arie Van Gemeren breaks down the world’s first great fiat collapse — how the Assignat began as “secured money” and ended as worthless paper — and what it teaches investors about modern inflation, asset bubbles, and political denial.
You’ll learn:
• How the Assignat was backed by land — and why that didn’t save it
• The psychology of inflation and why every regime thinks “this time is different”
• Why all fiat systems eventually converge toward debasement
• How to position yourself in real assets before the next currency reset
History doesn’t repeat — it just changes costume. The Assignat collapse is the blueprint for every modern inflation crisis.
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