"The projected path of the U.S. national debt is the major challenge facing American economic policy. Without changes in tax and spending rules, the national debt will rise from 62 percent of GDP now to more than 100 percent of GDP by the end of the decade and nearly twice that level within 25...

"An essential new history of America's monetary origins. The Second Continental Congress faced multiple daunting challenges when it was convened in summer 1775. First the assembly had to create a de facto government for the loosely joined colonies that would become the United States. It then had...