The existential crisis that Europe went through - and it seems to have overcome - when deciding on the financing of the post-Covid recovery has made us reopen the history books. The creation of a common European debt is indeed a reminder of one of the founding milestones of the United States as a federation. This famous “Hamiltonian” moment - named after the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton - which at the end of the 18th century instituted financial solidarity between the states of the young American nation.
Beyond the federal nature of the country, it was a debate on the meaning of the public debt that was posed at the time. On the one hand, Thomas Jefferson, who might be placed today in the camp of the “frugal”. For him, "one generation does not have the right to bind another" . On the other, James Madison, who defended the use of debt. "Debts incurred to ward off enemies are benefits that apply to all subsequent generations."
To what extent the decisions of a day
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