Episode description

George Hall is a professor of economics at Brandeis University, and was formerly an economist at the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. George has written widely on the history of U.S. public finance, and he joins Macro Musings to talk about the history of the U.S. national debt, including the most recent surge resulting from the pandemic. David and George also discuss how a government goes about funding itself, two different models of expenditure financing, the Revolutionary War and Civil War as case studies, and more.

Transcript for the episode can be found here.

George’s Twitter: @George_J_Hall

George’s Brandeis profile

David Beckworth’s Twitter: @DavidBeckworth

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Related Links:

*Financing Big US Federal Expenditures Surges: COVID-19 and Earlier US Wars* by George Hall and Thomas Sargent

*Debt and Taxes in Eight U.S. Wars and Two Insurrections* by George Hall and Thomas Sargent

*Three World Wars: Fiscal-monetary Consequences* by George Hall and Thomas Sargent