A Moral History of Monetary and Fiscal Policies

Did you know that the first paid holiday was introduced by Germany in 1903? Or that Frank L. Baum wrote “The Wizard of Oz” inspired by the march of Ohioan unemployed upon Washington D.C.? Or that, until 1974, married American women could not own a credit card without their husbands’ approval?

All these things and many more you can find in the book “A Moral History of Monetary and Fiscal Policies”, written by the National Bank of Romania’s Chief Economist Valentin Lazea. The volume targets specialists in history, economics or sociology, but also lay people.

The three parts of the volume finish with three provocative questions:

Did the Gold Standard era represent a period of fierce exploitation of the working–class? Did the rise of Nazism represent an inevitable consequence of orthodox macroeconomic policies? Was Nicolae Ceausescu wrong in repaying all Romania’s external debt in the ‘80s?