Richard Sylla - Alexander Hamilton on Finance, Credit, and Debt

A treasure trove for financial and public policy geeks . . . will also help lay readers go beyond the hit musical in understanding Hamiltons lasting significance. Publishers Weekly
While serving as the first treasury secretary from 1789 to 1795, Alexander Hamilton engineered a financial revolution. He established the treasury debt market, the dollar, and a central bank, while strategically prompting private entrepreneurs to establish securities markets and stock exchanges and encouraging state governments to charter a number of commercial banks and other business corporations. Yet despite a recent surge of interest in Hamilton, US financial modernization has not been fully recognized as one of his greatest achievements.
This book traces the development of Hamiltons financial thinking, policies, and actions through a selection of his writings. Financial historians and Hamilton experts Richard Sylla and David J. Cowen provide commentary that demonstrates the impact Hamilton had on the modern economic system, guiding readers through Hamiltons distinguished career. It showcases Hamiltons thoughts on the nations founding, the need for a strong central government, problems such as a depreciating paper currency and weak public credit, and the architecture of the financial system. His great state papers on public credit, the national bank, the mint, and manufactures instructed reform of the nations finances and jumpstarted economic growth. Hamilton practiced what he preached: he played a key role in the founding of three banks and a manufacturing corporationand his deft political maneuvering and economic savvy saved the fledgling republics economy during the countrys first full-blown financial crisis in 1792.
A fascinating examination of Hamiltonian economics. The Washington Times