Ralph Musgrave in today's FT:
Sir, I was interested to learn from Brian Garcia (Letters, September 30) how the ancient Greeks solved their debt problems in 173BC. In the mid-5th century BC, Pericles advocated the use of public works as a means of providing work for the unemployed. And the ancient Romans had a property price crash/credit crunch, which they dealt with in short order.
Has our understanding of economics improved or deteriorated over the past two and a half millennia?
Ralph Musgrave, Durham, UK.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Reader's Letter Of The Day
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4 comments:
As a non-member of the FT system, any danger of his argument/point being outlined here?
BE, that's the whole letter. Or see his blog for more musings in this vein.
Ah, in which excuse my ignorance but what did the ancient Greeks and Romans do?
First Pericles. According to a book called “Unemployment in History” by J.A.Garraty, “In Athens, Plutarch tells us, Pericles undertook ‘vast projects of buildings and designs of work, . . . . it being his desire and design that the undisciplined and mechanic multitude ….should not go without their share of public salaries, and yet should not have them given them for sitting still and doing nothing”.
Credit crunch in ancient Rome. If you Google “ancient Rome” and “credit crunch” you’ll find plenty of info. They got out of it by opening their treasury vaults and distributing gold coins and so forth to everyone.
Debt problems. According to a letter in the FT by Brian Garcia, in 173BC some Greek cities or states had excessive debt problems. They got out of it by organising haircuts for creditors all around. See:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d7244a04-e854-11e0-ab03-00144feab49a.html#axzz1Zo7BkjAb
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