A Matter of Interest: Reexamining Money, Debt, and Real Economic Growth

In terms of economics, the twenty-first century promises to be one of experiments and mixed economies that display features of both a private enterprise market and an intrusive government sector. To fully understand this coming trend, William Hixson presents this study of the US economy since World War I and its experiments with mixed economics. Hixson describes how the largely laissez-faire economy prior to 1929 was so structured to make a crisis of illiquidity and overindebtedness inevitable, and how the mixed economy that has prevailed since World War II is structured to result in a similar crisis. His work challenges the generally accepted views of both US and Marxist economists. Following a brief introduction that outlines Hixson’s approach and theoretical framework, the book begins with a seven-chapter study of the basic operating principles and procedures of a laissez-faire economy. The next three chapters examine the Great Crash of 1929 and how it was a predictable outcome of the US economy’s operation in a laissez-faire mode. A set of four chapters then analyze the emergence of the government sector as an increasingly significant factor, and the evolution and institutionalization of a mixed economy. The last set of chapters considers the past four decades of a mixed economy and why it lacks long-term viability while the concluding two chapters suggest changes in operating principles and financial practices to make the mixed economy a viable one. This work will be a valuable resource for professionals involved in all types of financial and investing fields, as well as for students and scholars of economics and national economies.