Ray Dalio has done an extraordinary job explaining how debt cycles unfold. I have learned a lot. What I’m interested in is the deeper question: why do they exist at all? Dalio generally begins at the income and credit layers, while the Time Standard begins with time and energy. The thesis I'm exploring is that debt cycles emerge when financial systems begin making claims on future time faster than civilization can convert energy into real work. Eventually, the physical world reconciles those claims.