Is the more important question how much a government owes, or what it financed and to whom? It is worth asking what the borrowing actually bought.

Medieval and modern debt figures are not interchangeable comparisons. Comparing debt-to-GDP ratios across centuries without accounting for state capac...

The sensible scale of debt depends on institutions, currency, maturity, economic conditions and the uses of borrowed resources. Context can matter mor...

Borrowing also requires servicing and may become dangerous when obligations outgrow revenue or credibility. An emergency loan can be prudent; permanen...

Whose stability matters most when assessing the gold standard: exporters, creditors, wage earners or governments?

Stable exchange rates and stable living standards are different outcomes that require different evidence. Stable currency quotations don't guaran...

The pre-1914 experience should not be treated as identical to interwar attempts to restore gold arrangements. The prewar and interwar versions should ...

Gold made some international promises easier to understand. Domestic employment and price adjustment could become difficult when gold flows pressured ...

Which episode would challenge your favorite simple explanation?

A sound comparison needs to distinguish a one-time price-level shock from continuing inflation over years. A price jump and years of accelerating infl...

An economy at war doesn't behave like an ordinary textbook example. War supply shocks and broken tax systems change prices in ways that simple on...

Large monetary expansion may accompany inflation, but timing and transmission must be examined rather than assumed. The amount of money matters, but t...