Jeff Gundlach, CEO with DoubleLine Capital LP in Los Angeles, used the parallels between Ancient Rome and the U.S. to frame his latest webcast this week.

In the webcast, Mr. Gundlach goes on to point out that, like the Roman Empire of yesteryear, the U.S. today maintains a massive debt load and by far the world’s largest military budget. And like Rome, where a destitute underclass was granted little social mobility, a similar “underclass” is emerging in the U.S.

Below is the presentation where Jeff Gundlach dares to compare the US to the Roman Empire:

All Hail Berlusconi
“The Roman emperors knew that the secret to exercising peaceful rule over the people was to provide them with bread and circus. Well, Berlusconi owns the circus, pretty much all of it - the TV, the football, the magazines, the books. And as a head of government, who also happens to own Italy’s biggest supermarket chain, he also controls, in the widest sense of the word, the bread.”

This comes from an article by John Carlin that was published in The Observer 7+ years ago but provides good analysis of how Berlusconi managed to stay in power for 17 years!

Full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/jan/18/italy.features