- Anti-progressive policies allow wealth to accumulate more quickly at the top of the economic spectrum.
- The wealthy save most of the money and much of the wealth gets lent to the middle classes keeping interest rates low.
- The middle classes have less income but are able to borrow cheaply to support the same standard of living.
- Higher amounts of leverage, profit growth and more capital accumulation pushes asset prices higher leading people to believe their wealth is higher than it really is. This creates a wealth effect which supports debt-supported spending.
- Eventually, the debt cannot be serviced and the process goes into reverse. Asset prices fall. Debt goes bad. The middle classes stop consuming beyond their income.
- Ultimately the wealth accumulation reverse as social unrest forces the government to adopt more progressive policies and wealth redistributes more equally.
"As to Bonaparte, he was well assured that nothing remained for him but to choose between that hazardous enterprise and his certain ruin." -Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, by Bourrienne