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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 72
Page
... political life of the city. Florence was therefore the first great state to be overshadowed by its public debt. Renaissance Florence — its economy, tax system, and public debt — was the inspiration for the study that eventually resulted ...
... political life of the city. Florence was therefore the first great state to be overshadowed by its public debt. Renaissance Florence — its economy, tax system, and public debt — was the inspiration for the study that eventually resulted ...
Page
... political theorist and Renaissance scholar, read the entire manuscript and provided both critical analysis and unflagging support and friendship. I am also grateful to an anonymous reviewer who provided sound guidance, constructive ...
... political theorist and Renaissance scholar, read the entire manuscript and provided both critical analysis and unflagging support and friendship. I am also grateful to an anonymous reviewer who provided sound guidance, constructive ...
Page
... political economist, with his interest in policy” and that comparative economic history “can test for generality, to set aside the theories that fit only the single case” (p. 1). This is my aim, too, and, like Kindleberger, I will try ...
... political economist, with his interest in policy” and that comparative economic history “can test for generality, to set aside the theories that fit only the single case” (p. 1). This is my aim, too, and, like Kindleberger, I will try ...
Page
... politicians, but this leaves too many questions unanswered. If lack of will has produced today's big deficits, why is it lacking everywhere and why suddenly now? What would give politicians the will to make the difficult choices ...
... politicians, but this leaves too many questions unanswered. If lack of will has produced today's big deficits, why is it lacking everywhere and why suddenly now? What would give politicians the will to make the difficult choices ...
Page
... political patterns, new tastes, new problems. The shape of the U.S. economy has constantly changed within a changing world. David Ricardo's famous law of comparative advantage provides one of the oldest discussions of the problem of ...
... political patterns, new tastes, new problems. The shape of the U.S. economy has constantly changed within a changing world. David Ricardo's famous law of comparative advantage provides one of the oldest discussions of the problem of ...
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