A Fabulous Debt by Robin Wigglesworth
7 out of 10Italian Renaissance municipal bonds. Dutch corporate bonds. English exchequer bonds. War bonds to defeat Napoleon. American railroad bonds. Wall Street bond ratings. Bretton Woods. World Bank development bonds. Eurobonds. Floating rate bonds. Mortgage bonds. Derivatives. Credit swaps. 2008 bailout bonds. COVID-19 quantitative easing. An interconnected global bond market.
People discovered that debt can be bought and sold. Bond markets have boom-and-bust cycles, but overall, they add more stable growth and security.
An open question is: When does government debt become unhealthy?