The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Foreword
• Richard E. Wagner
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part One: What Happened?
• 1.: What Hath Keynes Wrought?
• 2.: The Old-time Fiscal Religion
• 3.: First, the Academic Scribblers
• 4.: The Spread of the New Gospel
• 5.: Assessing the Damages
• Part Two: What Went Wrong?
• 6.: The Presuppositions of Harvey Road
• 7.: Keynesian Economics In Democratic Politics
• 8.: Money-financed Deficits and Political Democracy
• 9.: Institutional Constraints and Political Choice
• Part Three: What Can Be Done?
• 10.: Alternative Budgetary Rules
• 11.: What About Full Employment?
• 12.: A Return to Fiscal Principle

Acknowledgments

Many of the ideas developed in this book have been recognized by many persons for many years, and these have been hinted at in various passing references. We have, ourselves, lived with these ideas for many years, and one of us has a draft of a speech written as early as the middle 1950s which contains in very general terms much of what we say here. Many of the ideas themselves are not, therefore, new or novel. Instead, they are ideas whose time has come. Our efforts here are motivated by the conviction that purpose may now be served by extending these ideas more fully and by presenting them systematically.

Specific acknowledgments are limited to those who have been helpful in bringing this book into being. We are directly indebted to our colleagues and graduate students who have been exposed to various aspects of our argument and who have made helpful comments. Among our colleagues at the Center for Study of Public Choice, we should especially note the assistance of Victor Goldberg, Nicolaus Tideman, and Gordon Tullock. We also acknowledge the helpful comments of Thomas Borcherding, of Simon Fraser University; Fred Glahe, of the University of Colorado; James Gwartney, of Florida State University; and Robert Tollison, of Texas A&M University.

This book emerged as part of the continuing research program of the Center for Study of Public Choice, which provided the facilities for our efforts. Work on this book was also greatly facilitated by Liberty Fund, Inc., of Indianapolis, Indiana, which incorporated the effort into its overall program, directed toward study of the ideals of a free society. Some of our research was also supported by the Ford Foundation. Peripheral inputs into our own thinking during the final stages of the writing were provided by the participants in a Liberty Fund conference, “Federal Fiscal Responsibility,” at Hot Springs, Virginia, in March 1976. The papers and discussion of this conference will be published separately.

Mrs. Betty Ross provided the clerical assistance that has by now come to be expected and without which our manuscript production would probably grind to a screeching halt.