Hamilton's Blessing: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Our National Debt

Rating:
Summary: Good Background on the Origin of our Nation's Debt
Review: 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."

Rating:
Summary: Good introduction to a complex topic
Review: This book provides a good, breezy introduction to a complex and important topic. Gordon doesn't do a particularly good job, though, explaining why the National Debt is (or isn't) important. Also, he seems to confuse the debt as a blessing when, in fact, he really means (I think) that it was the assumption of the pre-constitutional debt by the federal government, which resulted in international financial credibility, that is "Hamilton's Blessing." The credibility, rather than the debt itself, is the "strategic tool" that Gordon mentions in his conclusion. Some of his conclusions reflect, at best, a misunderstanding of how Washington works.

Rating:
Summary: Loses something towards the end
Review: This book starts out very good with an insightful depiction of Hamilton's initial achievement, but gets progressively weaker as it advances into the present, as the author begins to lose interest in the historical importance of the debt and concentrates more on his polemic against the tax system. While he makes some very valid points about the Byzantine complexity of the revenue code, to me he did not draw a clear enough connection between this and the central topic. Although Gordon shows that the current debt is very different in origin from obligations of the past, his depiction of the events since World War II is altogether too skimpy. He also does not do enough to distinguish between the so-called "publicly held debt" and the debt held by other government accounts (such as Social Security), a relatively new cleavage with highly significant ramifications for fiscal policy. Finally, and this is certainly not the author's fault, the book has become just a bit dated with the projection of large surpluses and the current debate over their best use--perhaps a new edition is forthcoming. All in all, Hamilton's blessing will provide useful insights for those interested in fiscal policy, but the book could have been much better than it is.