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Title: Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt by John Steele Gordon ISBN: 0-14-027015-9 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: January, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Intersting Little Book on US Fiscal History
Comment: John Steele Gordon is an excellent writer, one whom I have enjoyed very much in the pages of American Heritage and who wrote a nifty history of Wall Street called "The Great Game."
This book, "Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt" is a good, if brief, overview of the fiscal history of the American government. It is somewhat misnamed, since the National Debt serves as a background and tie in to each period of fiscal history studied.
The author does a superb job of explaining Alexander Hamilton's establishment of our financial, banking, debt and money system. Here is a woefully under appreciated founder explained succinctly and whose brilliance and indispensability are brought forth by Gordon.
Descriptions of attitudes towards and major changes in financial policy and tools follow. Gordon covers the major aspects: the struggle over the Second National Bank, Jackson's paying off the debt (the only time the US Gov't has been debt free), Lincoln and Chase's tax, greenback and bond finance of the Civil War, the long fight to establish the income tax, the fight over high marginal rates and an efficient system of taxation, and the change in view in the last century from one that deficits and debt were something to be controlled to our current sorry state of view whereby no one worries about much about deficits anymore.
Debt, when properly used, has allowed us to primarily wage wars. It was retired in times of peace. We face an interesting time now, when debt as a percentage of GDP is much higher than it has been in most peacetimes. This raises the question that if we have to fight a truly massive and long war in the future, will we have the capacity to borrow what we need (based on historic statistics, it is a question well worth pondering).
Gordon finishes the book with a polemic against the political culture that has lost its way in terms of providing an efficient and fair and economically sound system of taxation and the willingness to moderate the nation's debt.
This is a good and interesting book. Anyone looking for a succinct telling of the development of our government's fiscal structure will appreciate this gem.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Good Primer on the History of U.S. Fiscal Policy
Comment: Just two years ago, John Steele Gordon's book on the history of the U.S. federal debt would have seemed dated, even though it was published in 1997. After more than twenty consecutive years of operating in the red, the U.S. federal government had not only erased its annual deficits and began paying down the debt, but surpluses were projected over the next ten years.
This is no longer the case. A tax cut, the war on terrorism, and a slowdown in the economy have combined to push the U.S. government's outlays above its revenues. They have also made this book -- "Hamilton's Blessing" -- relevant again.
Gordon's book is two things: 1) a basic history describing the twists and turns of U.S. fiscal policy over the last two hundred-plus years and 2) a political tract condemning the latest turn U.S. fiscal policy has taken since the Great Society.
By combining the two, Gordon seeks to show that the most recent practice of U.S. fiscal policy -- that of habitually running deficits in peacetime -- is not only unprecedented in U.S. history, but also, more importantly, unsupported by any sound theory of economics.
"Hamilton's Blessing" is well-written and interesting. The book is only slightly marred by a lack of detail in some areas. How exactly does a large public debt hurt your average citizen and by how much? We never find out.
Gordon also should have kept his own political bent out of the book. Among other things, he spends three pages in a less than 200-page book detailing Jack Kemp's personal and political history, including his football career. All very interesting, but not really relevant to the history of the U.S. debt.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Background on the Origin of our Nation's Debt
Comment: This book is detailed, but easy to read, giving a good background on how our national debt came to be what it is today. Teh book also covers several of the more popular schools of thought on economics, specifically the teachings of John Maynard Keynes, the namesake of Keynesian Economics. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever questioned our government's inability to pay down the national debt as that debt is known as "Hamilton's Blessing."
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Title: The Business of America: Tales from the Marketplace--American Enterprise from the Settling Fo New England to the Breakup of At&T by John Steele Gordon ISBN: 0802776353 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: A Thread Across the Ocean: The Heroic Story of the Trans Atlantic Cable by John Steele Gordon ISBN: 0802713645 Publisher: Walker & Co Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union by Robert Vincent Remini ISBN: 0393310884 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: November, 1993 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Alexander Hamilton: A Biography by Forrest McDonald ISBN: 039330048X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 1982 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Wall Street: A History by Charles R. Geisst ISBN: 0195130863 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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