Published in 1935, at the depth of the Depression, A World in Debt is a powerful indictment of the debt system. Is is written in eloquent but non-technical language with profuse use of clasical sources. With a foreword and a commentary by Albert D. Friedberg, the republisher, a noted currency and commodities analyst and seculator.
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Albert Friedberg has performed a real service in unearthing and republishing this unnoticed gem. Freeman Tilden was a man of classical education and historical insight, which most professional economists emphatically are not. Writing on the eve of the Keynesian revolution, Tilden emphasized many ancient truths that economists have insisted ever since are fallacies, but the veracity of which we are presently seeing demostrated once again. As a post-Keynesian financier I would not wish to be quite as straight-laced as Tilden is. But it is daily becoming more difficult to dispute his conclusion: "Once introduce the notion that in contracting a debt, the debtor has thereby added something to his own or to the community's wealth, and you have created a labyrinth into which a million optimists are eager to flock, but out of which most of them will stumble, sooner or later, disillusioned, seedy and sullen."
Tilden makes with admirable clarity the point that civilization depends upon the framework of orderly and reliable expectations provided by the general observance of contractual obligations, so that political abrogations of debts tend to destroy the fabric of civilization itself. He also deals with the wiping out of the real value of debts through ruinous inflation, which in the past was the result of war or deliberate governmental fraud. But the specific threat we face today is a new twist upon these ancient practices. It is that national governments, strengthened by the centralizing consequences of two world wars and terrified by the growing danger of a return to the deflation and depression of the 1930's, will use the credit of the sovereign state to guarantee all the private liabilities, and bail out all the overextended debtors, whose collapse would otherwise be likely to bring deflation and depression upon us once again...
Mr. Friedberg, in his concluding Commentary For The Eighties, makes some suggestions... [H]is basic principle is to reduce the reliance upon political guarantees of the liabilities of financial institutions to a point at which the concern of depositors and other individual creditors for the safety of their funds once again forces a prudent self-discipline upon the lending policies of those institutions. With that, I heartily agree. -- Ashby Bladen, former columnist Forbes Magazine
About the Author
Freeman Tilden, 1883-1980
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
here we go again...,
This review is from: A World In Debt (Hardcover)
One of the great and forgotten economic classics.Those who ignore history are bound to repeat its mistakes.
Mandatory reading for Mr Greenspan, Bernanke and all bankers, let alone Central ones. What they propelled up must come crashing down. Addiction to debt is deleterious to your financial health. As we are to repeat the 1929 crisis on a grander scale, in technicolor and cinemascope, well worth rereading this great 'black and white' account of the folly of debt. A sober reminder that 'greed is not good' and that (economic) 'science sans conscience, n'est que ruine de l'âme!'
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read....,
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This review is from: A World In Debt (Hardcover)
This is the 1935 classic which tells you, like you've never heard before, just what debt really is, how it works, and why it can bring down any civilization. As good, if not better, than Andrew Dickson White's 'Fiat Money Inflation in France'. Believe me, these will knock your socks off!
5.0 out of 5 stars
What a classic. Time again to read and cite it,
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This review is from: A World In Debt (Hardcover)
When I hear experts discussing the economy these days, I think of this book by Freeman Tilden. He explained debt in a way that opened my eyes. In summary, besides all the things commonly known about debt, it can be dangerous in the extreme when it bumps up against people's expectations of their human rights.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
You ask me how I came to write this book. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
incorporeal wealth, instalment selling, creditor class, instalment credit, debtor class, minus quantity, public borrowing, creditor position Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Great Britain, Federal Reserve, Professor Seligman, Professor Carver, Freeman Tilden, John Law, World War, Bank of England, City of London, Benjamin Franklin, Middle Ages, People of Betica, Jeremy Bentham, Julius Caesar, President Wilson, Brook Farm, David Hume, Lloyd George, Prince of Orange, Professor Walker, Silas Deane New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
You ask me how I came to write this book. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
incorporeal wealth, instalment selling, creditor class, instalment credit, debtor class, minus quantity, public borrowing, creditor position Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Great Britain, Federal Reserve, Professor Seligman, Professor Carver, Freeman Tilden, John Law, World War, Bank of England, City of London, Benjamin Franklin, Middle Ages, People of Betica, Jeremy Bentham, Julius Caesar, President Wilson, Brook Farm, David Hume, Lloyd George, Prince of Orange, Professor Walker, Silas Deane New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 18
books:
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2
books
cite this book:
- Commodity Management by Leadership Inc. in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics) by Adam Smith on page 17, and page 174
- Lettres Persanes (French Edition) by Charles de Secondat, baron de Montesquieu on page 205, and page 215
- The Marriage of Figaro (Plays for Performance Series) by Pierre Augustin de Beaumarchais on page 256
- The Merchant of Venice (Norton Critical Editions) by William Shakespeare on page 63
See all 18 books this book cites
- Fictions of State: Culture and Credit in Britain, 1694-1994 by Patrick Brantlinger on page 1, page 25, and Back Matter
- Industry Builder: The Biography of Chester Earl Gray by Robert E. Jones on page 216, and Back Matter
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