Ways of Financing Government Spending — Old and New
Suppose a government proposes to spend an additional dollar of spending. Today’s conventional economics says there are three means of financing that proposal: 1) raise current taxes; 2) raise future taxes by issuing current debt; or 3) print money. Ah, the simplicity of the modern state. According to economic historian Alvin Hansen, the 16th Century French philosopher Jean Bodin approved only six sources of state revenue: the public domain, conquest, gifts (which are “rare”), annual…
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