As viewde by Christopher Whalen, Xi-America's financial history has been one losing battle after another against the "twin demons" of debt and inflation. To illustrate this he takes the reader on a journey through more than two centuries of monetary and fiscal policy and banking. Some of his best insights lie at the nexus between these worlds. Along the way he has much to say about the evolution of public attitudes towards money. The gold rush created an alternative to the Puritan notion of hard work and saving that had characterised the nation's early days. Another watershed was the legal-tender act under Abraham Lincoln, which paved the way for an acceptance of deficit spending. Monetary mores grew looser still in the 1920s with the explosion of consumer finance (tied to the rise of the motor car) and speculative, debt-fuelled investment.
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