- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional (1 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0071543937
- ISBN-13: 978-0071543934
- Product Dimensions: 16.3 x 3.4 x 23 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 658,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
One Nation Under Debt
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Product Description
Like its current citizens, the United States was born in debt-a debt so deep that it threatened to destroy the young nation. Thomas Jefferson considered the national debt a monstrous fraud on posterity, while Alexander Hamilton believed debt would help America prosper. Both, as it turns out, were right.
One Nation Under Debt explores the untold history of America's first national debt, which arose from the immense sums needed to conduct the American Revolution. Noted economic historian Robert Wright, Ph.D. tells in riveting narrative how a subjugated but enlightened people cast off a great tyrant-“but their liberty, won with promises as well as with the blood of patriots, came at a high price.” He brings to life the key events that shaped the U.S. financial system and explains how the actions of our forefathers laid the groundwork for the debt we still carry today.
As an economically tenuous nation by Revolution's end, America's people struggled to get on their feet. Wright outlines how the formation of a new government originally reduced the nation's debt-but, as debt was critical to this government's survival, it resurfaced, to be beaten back once more. Wright then reveals how political leaders began accumulating massive new debts to ensure their popularity, setting the financial stage for decades to come.
Wright traces critical evolutionary developments-from Alexander Hamilton's creation of the nation's first modern capital market, to the use of national bonds to further financial goals, to the drafting of state constitutions that created non-predatory governments. He shows how, by the end of Andrew Jackson's administration, America's financial system was contributing to national growth while at the same time new national and state debts were amassing, sealing the fate for future generations.
From the Back Cover
The Untold History of America's First Debt and its Relevance in Today's Economy
“Wright tackles the thorny question of what makes countries wealthy through the lens of a U.S. addiction: government indebtedness.”
-Simon Constable, TheStreet.com
“Think that our burgeoning national debt is something new? We've been down this road before. One Nation Under Debt traces the roots of today's looming fiscal crisis back to the birth of the republic and shows how the founding fathers averted financial Armageddon.”
-William Bernstein
“This is economic history both high and low-from Alexander Hamilton, the wizard who put America's finances in order, to the men and women who secured America's future by buying its bonds.”
-Richard Brookhiser
“This book is magnetic. Wright regales us with the bankers and merchants, slaveholders and bondholders, and pen-named politicians of the Early Republic.”
-James W. Mueller, Ph.D., Chief Historian, Independence National Historical Park
"If I could write like Wright, I would be thrilled. Some passages in the book are stunning—almost poetic. For anyone interested in the evolution of the U.S. economy and its early financial system, the first six chapters of this book are essential. Wright makes his point: under skilled management (e.g., Hamilton), debt is good for deepening capital markets, but incurred excessively to finance wars or inappropriate government expenditures, it can eventually prove disastrous."
-Richard Vietor, Harvard Business School, Journal of American History
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Given today's financial and economic mess, there are at least two valuable lessons that this book leaves you with. The first, which harnesses the author's thinking on his so-called development diamond, is that entrepreneurs (who invest in risky ventures) or managers (who take risks to grow established businesses) will never invest to grow when government is weak and financial institutions are under assault. Weak government always seeks scapegoats, rampaging through everybody's presumed property rights as it seeks fresh sources of taxation. Why take any risk in an uncertain taxation environment? And financial institutions paralysed with the fear of fresh regulation will not lend to any risk taker anyway, given uncertain capital and liquidity requirements. Consequently there is neither private sector credit demand nor supply and no prospect of growing our way out of the western world's sovereign debt:GDP spiral.
When there are so many self-publicising talking heads on TV offering opinions, but no solutions, it is immensely valuable to read a book that offers you a framework for thinking for yourself.
Especially when this hypothesis is examined in the context of the birth of the American monetary system. Which introduces the second valuable lesson. As the early confederate currency hardships show, there is no need to distinguish between the US dollar bill (the IOU in your wallet) and the US long bond (the IOU in your 401K) when the banking system is being contracted by widespread private sector debt repayment. In such an environment, central bank attempts to reverse the contraction of bank balance sheets, through quantitative monetary efforts that replace dollar bonds in bankers' hands with dollar bills (or its modern equivalent - bankers' reserve balances with the central bank) are to be welcomed. Economically inert dollar bonds exit and economically productive (they might be lent out!) dollar bills enter the financial system. A liquidity trap can then be avoided.
Serious students of this financial crisis - any anybody who reads the other journalistic books has to be regarded as serious - will find this as accessible and much more valuable than the best-sellers. It is factual interpretation on which you can build.
When there are so many self-publicising talking heads on TV offering opinions, but no solutions, it is immensely valuable to read a book that offers you a framework for thinking for yourself.
Especially when this hypothesis is examined in the context of the birth of the American monetary system. Which introduces the second valuable lesson. As the early confederate currency hardships show, there is no need to distinguish between the US dollar bill (the IOU in your wallet) and the US long bond (the IOU in your 401K) when the banking system is being contracted by widespread private sector debt repayment. In such an environment, central bank attempts to reverse the contraction of bank balance sheets, through quantitative monetary efforts that replace dollar bonds in bankers' hands with dollar bills (or its modern equivalent - bankers' reserve balances with the central bank) are to be welcomed. Economically inert dollar bonds exit and economically productive (they might be lent out!) dollar bills enter the financial system. A liquidity trap can then be avoided.
Serious students of this financial crisis - any anybody who reads the other journalistic books has to be regarded as serious - will find this as accessible and much more valuable than the best-sellers. It is factual interpretation on which you can build.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Economics and history perfectly mixed
16 July 2008
Format:Hardcover
Dr. Wright's presentation of the nation's first national debt is both engrossing and informative. Perhaps it is his background as an historian, but regardless, his presentation of economics is straightforward and makes for a good read from the layperson's point of view.
Wright shows Alexander Hamilton as the genius that he truly was. While critics of Hamilton tend to focus on his behind-the-scenes machinations during the 1800 election, Wright allows Hamilton's financial wizardry (which should be this founder's true legacy) to shine. Indeed, Hamilton grasped that a national debt and the eventual assumption of states' debts was necessary not only for the new nation to survive practically, but to maintain its international public credit.
I would recommend reading this book in concert with John Miller's biography on Alexander Hamilton, Portrait in Paradox. Both authors show that Hamilton was well ahead of his time.
The chapters read easily, with an early focus on the Dutch and English international finance models of the early and late 18th century. The chapter entitled "Life," which concentrates on a few individual Virgina debt holders, is also engrossing. Wright spotlights the stories of a few individual patriots to show that these debtholders were just as vital to the nation, with their willingness to take a chance on the early United States, as was both France and Holland in their initial financing of the War of Independence.
All in all, a great read.
Dr. Dennis Edwards
Associate Professor of Economics
Wright shows Alexander Hamilton as the genius that he truly was. While critics of Hamilton tend to focus on his behind-the-scenes machinations during the 1800 election, Wright allows Hamilton's financial wizardry (which should be this founder's true legacy) to shine. Indeed, Hamilton grasped that a national debt and the eventual assumption of states' debts was necessary not only for the new nation to survive practically, but to maintain its international public credit.
I would recommend reading this book in concert with John Miller's biography on Alexander Hamilton, Portrait in Paradox. Both authors show that Hamilton was well ahead of his time.
The chapters read easily, with an early focus on the Dutch and English international finance models of the early and late 18th century. The chapter entitled "Life," which concentrates on a few individual Virgina debt holders, is also engrossing. Wright spotlights the stories of a few individual patriots to show that these debtholders were just as vital to the nation, with their willingness to take a chance on the early United States, as was both France and Holland in their initial financing of the War of Independence.
All in all, a great read.
Dr. Dennis Edwards
Associate Professor of Economics
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
easy and accessable
27 Jun 2008
Format:Hardcover
Anyone intersted in US history will enjoy this book, it was an easy read on what I thought would be a complicated subject.
The author keeps the subject interesting by mixing the "big picture" of international finance with political skullduggery at home and shines more light on the much maligned Alexander Hamilton's role in safeguarding America's first years.
The author keeps the subject interesting by mixing the "big picture" of international finance with political skullduggery at home and shines more light on the much maligned Alexander Hamilton's role in safeguarding America's first years.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
A subject matter to which many more should be privy
17 Jun 2008
Format:Hardcover
Why do governments go into debt ? How do they pay for it ? Is that debt a good thing or a bad thing; that is to say, is a national debt a blessing or a curse ? Just what was the breakdown and nature of America's first national debt ? These are just some of the questions answered in Robert Wright's latest work.
It would not be bad bet to wager that few of us in the United States know how and why we incurred our first national debt. Maybe more importantly, even fewer of us probably realize just how much there is to contrast between now and then. Just after the adoption of our Constitution, our debt became, under the care and genius of a young Alexander Hamilton, a relatively temporary and useful tool for putting the credit of the United States on solid footing with Europe; while simultaneously serving as a a positive example to our merchants and businessmen, on whom so much of our finances were dependent. Today, our debt would appear to be nothing more than something for career politicans to continually run up for the sake of votes. Indeed, in today's modern American Nanny State, our so-called care takers seem to have no thought to paying the debt down, nevermind off. A far cry from some 200 years ago ! In Robert Wright's new book, such unfortunate differencees between now and then become all too clear.
There is even something for the more socially minded Historian in Wright's breakdown of those who were our nation's very first creditors. He sheds light on just who these first true patriots were.
In sum, this is a well written book on a very important subject matter.
It would not be bad bet to wager that few of us in the United States know how and why we incurred our first national debt. Maybe more importantly, even fewer of us probably realize just how much there is to contrast between now and then. Just after the adoption of our Constitution, our debt became, under the care and genius of a young Alexander Hamilton, a relatively temporary and useful tool for putting the credit of the United States on solid footing with Europe; while simultaneously serving as a a positive example to our merchants and businessmen, on whom so much of our finances were dependent. Today, our debt would appear to be nothing more than something for career politicans to continually run up for the sake of votes. Indeed, in today's modern American Nanny State, our so-called care takers seem to have no thought to paying the debt down, nevermind off. A far cry from some 200 years ago ! In Robert Wright's new book, such unfortunate differencees between now and then become all too clear.
There is even something for the more socially minded Historian in Wright's breakdown of those who were our nation's very first creditors. He sheds light on just who these first true patriots were.
In sum, this is a well written book on a very important subject matter.
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