The first remarkable historic book on the debt to 0 in USA under President Andrew Jackson in 1835. The analysis start from the formation of this debt and the origins of the Bank of the United States. The war of 1812 result in rising of the needs of expenses for federal government. At the peak the debt was 127 millions of dollars, but as explained the only comparison that could be made is as percentage of GDP, amount accounted almost in 10,5%.
The law for reduction and extinguishment of public debt, approved in 1817 by the congress follow various steps and presidents before becoming reality. As we can recognize also today, the private bank try to obtain the maximum profit with deferrals of debt or others escamotage. Notwithstanding this assumption and the difficulty of containing the recalls for public spending throghout the states of federation, or as in the case of South Carolina that try to put the self interest above all, we can read a clear determination of the Jacksonians age and one common sense to reach the freedom from public debt without compromises. The production of surpluses then was going on with a small state spending, no welfare state, and so few wars, not least the sales of public lands, and substantially from an economic growth and a general equilibrium of resources exploited by man and by animals. Today is different, in better (technology) and worst (exhaustion of water in California teach us something as climate change).
The parallels into the centuries are hard to find, but the moral question is one of them. Now with 17 trillions of public debt in the USA we need to face the problems of trust for whom of foreign nations that refinance capital. And, if is seems to be abstract, then and now, various circles of expansions or reducing of money base pose to us a diriment problem that isn't possible to escape. The author tend to think that is only a political problem, but, ok, I agree with him and not only. I think that the most important problem, in a world of debts, private and public, we need to check and balance the source of production of money, the FED, the ECB that never answer to direct elections or control from the people.
