America’s Fiscal Constitution: Its Triumph and Collapse

White rings the bell in a desperate attempt to wake us from our financial coma before it is too late, and it is almost too late. Taking upon himself the thankless role of a national debt crisis historian, White recounts our country’s battle with spend-thrift politicians. A senior adviser for Lazard, a firm advising both governments and corporations, White musters all available resources to explain what every checkbook balancer already knows: you cannot spend more than you earn for very long without suffering serious consequences.

Remarkably well annotated, White writes with a clear, easy-to-understand style, weaving lush history with a price tag for war, industrialization, and government subsidies. He documents the Presidents who put us in the hole, which ones pulled us out, and how they managed it.

White dares his readers to imagine what our country’s founding fathers might have done about today’s financial crisis. The short answer is: they would probably faint. But, more important, White explains exactly what you can do as a citizen of this great nation to force our government into a new era of financial responsibility.