Mountains of Debt: Crisis and Change in Renaissance Florence, Victorian Britain, and Postwar America

by Michael Veseth

Overview

This provocative work presents a unique analysis of the current economic problems and policies of the United States based on a comparative historical approach. The study looks at what happens when flourishing economies begin to accumulate large public debts, falling from fiscal balance toward fiscal crisis, where the problem of managing the public debt overwhelms the traditional concerns of public policy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195064209
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	02/28/2000
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.44(w) x 9.56(h) x 1.04(d)

Table of Contents

	Prologue	3
1.	Structural Change and Fiscal Crisis	7
2.	Renaissance Florence: Death, Birth, and the Fifth Element	19
3.	Mountains of Debt and the Heart of Florence	46
4.	Simple Patterns: 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
8.	The New Mountains of Debt	171
9.	Saddle Points	190
10.	Changing Directions	212
	Notes	223
	Bibliography	235
	Index	244