Mountains of Debt: Crisis and Change in Renaissance Florence, Victorian Britain, and Postwar AmericaLike the United States today, Renaissance Florence and Victorian Britain were the richest, most dynamic economic systems of their times. Yet each succumbed to a fiscal crisis brought on by public debt and taxation and eventually fell into long-term economic decline. Now, public debt and taxation dominate the America policy agenda. Must the United States follow the same dismal pattern of fiscal crisis and economic decline? Mountains of Debt argues that it is not too late for the United States to change directions and suggests a comprehensive program for reform of American fiscal institutions that would reduce the deficit problem and at the same time reverse the long-term structural trends that are both the cause and the effect of the fiscal crisis today. Offering proposals for reducing the deficit, this new analysis could alter the current course of the United States economy. |
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... grown so large that they often dominate everyday decision making in both the public and private sectors, a condition that I call “fiscal crisis.” How did this situation come about and how will it end? The postwar United States is not ...
... grown so large that they often dominate everyday decision making in both the public and private sectors, a condition that I call “fiscal crisis.” How did this situation come about and how will it end? The postwar United States is not ...
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... grow into a mountain of debt that ultimately dominated the economic and civic life of their city. Mountains of public ... growing public debt is proclaimed by government leaders who seem utterly unable to do anything about it. It is easy ...
... grow into a mountain of debt that ultimately dominated the economic and civic life of their city. Mountains of public ... growing public debt is proclaimed by government leaders who seem utterly unable to do anything about it. It is easy ...
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... grow absolutely); meanwhile the proportion of income spent on nonnecessities tends to grow both relatively and absolutely. In short, as the size of the income pie rises, there is a basic change in the way consumers divide the pie among ...
... grow absolutely); meanwhile the proportion of income spent on nonnecessities tends to grow both relatively and absolutely. In short, as the size of the income pie rises, there is a basic change in the way consumers divide the pie among ...
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... growing public debt and the problem of managing it becomes the overwhelming concern of public policy. In fiscal ... grow rigid. This institutional hardening is not necessarily undesirable in the short run because it indicates that ...
... growing public debt and the problem of managing it becomes the overwhelming concern of public policy. In fiscal ... grow rigid. This institutional hardening is not necessarily undesirable in the short run because it indicates that ...
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... grow until finally the economy loses its ability to grow, too set in the concrete of rules, regulations, and restrictive practices to adopt the progressive innovations it needs to remain dynamic. If rigid social institutions can cause ...
... grow until finally the economy loses its ability to grow, too set in the concrete of rules, regulations, and restrictive practices to adopt the progressive innovations it needs to remain dynamic. If rigid social institutions can cause ...
Contents
Mountains of Debt and the Heart of Florence | |
Britain and the Industrial Revolution | |
The Odious Tax and the Standing Miracle | |
The American Century and the American Crisis | |
The Changing Structure of American Government | |
The New Mountains of Debt | |
Saddle Points | |
Changing Directions | |
NOTES | |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | |
INDEX | |
Other editions - View all
Mountains of Debt: Crisis and Change in Renaissance Florence, Victorian ... Michael Veseth No preview available - 1990 |
Common terms and phrases
baby boom banks Black Death budget capital catasto change and fiscal Ciompi cloth commune’s consumption Corn Laws corporate Cosimo costs created deficit domestic dowry fund economic growth effect entrepreneurs example factors federal fifth element finance financial markets firms fiscal balance fiscal crisis fiscal imbalance flat tax Florence’s Florentine economy florin foreign government’s growing guilds important incentives income tax increase Industrial Revolution innovations institutions interest investment labor living standards longterm manufacturing Medici Medici bank Monte Commune Monte shares Napoleonic Wars national debt needed outlays pattern Peace of Lodi Peel’s percent perhaps period political population postwar private sector problem production profits programs public debt Renaissance Florence rigid rise role saddle point shift shortterm social insurance social security structural change tax burden tax expenditures tax rates tax reform tax system trade trend U.S. economy United Victorian Britain wealth workers world economy