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 65
Page v
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page vi
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 4
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 11
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Page 12
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Sorry, this page's content is restricted.
Contents
PROLOGUE | 3 |
1 Structural Change and Fiscal Crisis | 7 |
Death Birth and the Fifth Element | 19 |
3 Mountains of Debt and the Heart of Florence | 46 |
Britain and the Industrial Revolution | 75 |
5 The Odious Tax and the Standing Miracle | 103 |
6 The American Century and the American Crisis | 132 |
7 The Changing Structure of American Government | 153 |
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 British industry budget capital catasto change and fiscal Ciompi cloth consumption Corn Laws corporate costs created deficit domestic dowry fund economic growth economic history economists effect Engel's Law entrepreneurs factories fifth element financial markets firms fiscal balance fiscal crisis fiscal imbalance flat tax Florence's Florentine economy florin foreign growing guilds important income tax increase Industrial Revolution innovations institutions interest investment labor living standards Martin Feldstein Medici Medici bank ment Monte Commune Monte shares national debt nomic outlays pattern percent perhaps period political population postwar problem production profits programs public debt Renaissance Florence rigid rise role saddle point shift social insurance social security structural change tax burden tax expenditures tax rates tax reform tax revenues tax system taxation tion trade trend U.S. economy United University Press Victorian Britain wealth workers world economy