By Nancy Spannaus
April 28, 2019—I am very happy to announce that my book Hamilton Versus Wall Street has received a new thoughtful endorsement from another veteran economic scholar. On April 20, Neil C. Hughes wrote the following:
In an age in unbridled individualism and banking system greed, Nancy Spannaus offers the reader the wisdom of Alexander Hamilton, a great statesman and financier who believed that capitalism contained the ingredients for providing the greater good for the most Americans. In bite-sized chapters, Spannaus presents the keys to unlocking Hamilton’s theories, and shows how succeeding administrations relied on Hamilton’s wisdom in building America’s economic and financial system, despite strong opposition from the private financial sector. Highly recommended!
Neil Hughes, now retired, identifies himself as a former private banking and World Bank official. Mr. Hughes is the author of China’s Economic Challenge: Smashing the Iron Rice Bowl, published by East Gate books in 2002.
Hughes joins retired economics professor Richard Sylla, a professed Hamiltonian, in endorsing my book. Sylla, author of Alexander Hamilton, The Illustrated Biography, contributed the following comment, which appears on the back cover of Hamilton Versus Wall Street:
In our time of crumbling infrastructure, anemic economic growth, and dysfunctional government, Spannaus points to a better path, the American System of economic policy initiated by Alexander Hamilton more than two centuries ago. Hamilton encouraged long-term investment and productivity growth, and discouraged short-term speculation and financial instability. His policies made America great, and a return to them can make America great again.
It is my hope that such endorsements will help provoke the necessary public debate among Hamilton scholars and economists about the true nature of Hamilton’s economic policies, which have little to do with noted “champions” of Hamilton among the financier class (such as the early 20th Century Fed Chairman Andrew Mellon). Far too many historians have used endorsements such as those of Mellon, as an excuse for slandering Hamilton as the enemy of the common man. As I argue in my book, the truth is the opposite: The American System launched by Hamilton, and carried forward by John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, provided the basis for uplifting the living standard and freedom of all Americans to a level that was once the envy of the world.
Such a public debate would help launch the political debate about the measures so desperately needed to solve the crisis of our nation’s economy, a crisis which was in fact created by the abandonment of the American System. To this end, it was my intention to make my book accessible to all politically conscious citizens, even including in it a model bill for funding a massive infrastructure program along Hamiltonian principles.
Hamilton Versus Wall Street can be purchased here, or at other online booksellers.
Widget not in any sidebars
Tags: American System, Hamilton Versus Wall Street, Nancy Spannaus, Neil C. Hughes, Richard Sylla
Congratulations!!