So the G7 leaders have signed an emergency accord on global currency stability. How quaint. One might almost be forgiven for mistaking this for a moment of decisive statesmanship, rather than what it truly is: a panicked attempt to shore up the walls of a crumbling edifice.

We have seen this before, of course. The Roman Senate issued decrees to stabilise the denarius as inflation ravaged the provinces. The British Empire convened conferences to manage the gold standard as it slipped into irrelevance.

Now, the G7 – that pious club of declining powers – pens a document to reassure markets that all is well. But all is not well. The dollar’s hegemony is fraying, the euro is a political project without a soul, and the yen is a relic of deflationary stagnation.

This accord is not a solution. It is a symptom of intellectual decadence, a refusal to confront the reality that the age of Western economic dominance is ending. We shall watch the markets yawn, the speculators shrug, and the historians note: another footnote in the decline of a civilisation that forgot how to lead.