Public Debt as a Form of Public Finance: Overcoming a Category Mistake and its Vices (Elements in Austrian Economics)

"Economists commit a category mistake when they treat democratic governments as indebted. Monarchs can be indebted, as can individuals. In contrast, democracies can't truly be indebted. They are financial intermediaries that form a bridge between what are often willing borrowers and forced lenders. The language of public debt is an ideological language that promotes politically expressed desires and is not a scientific language that clarifies the practice of public finance. Economists have gone astray by assuming that a government is just another person whose impulses toward prudent action will restrict recourse to public debt and induce rational political action"--Publisher's website Cover......Page 1 Title page......Page 3 Copyright page......Page 4 Public Debt as a Form of Public Finance: Overcoming a Category Mistake and its Vices......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 1 Monarchies, Democracies, and Indebtedness......Page 9 2 Political Presuppositions and the Theory of Public Finance......Page 15 3 Taxes as Prices: A Useful but Corruptible Simile......Page 22 4 From Public Pricing to Fiscal Policy: The Keynesian Detour......Page 26 5 Ecologies, Not Machines: Analytical Failures of Macro Theories......Page 30 6 Calculation and Coordination within a Political Economy......Page 35 7 Public Debt, Systemic Lying, and the Corruption of Contract......Page 42 8 From Liberal to Feudal Democracy: Henry Maine Reversed......Page 52 9 Liberalism and Collectivism: An Easily Toxic Mix......Page 55 References......Page 59 Acknowledgments......Page 67