A History of U.S. Debt Limits

George J. Hall and Thomas Sargent

No 21799, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Congress first imposed an aggregate debt limit in 1939 when it delegated decisions about designing US debt instruments to the Treasury. Before World War I, Congress designed each bond and specified a maximum amount of each bond that the Treasury could issue. It usually specified purposes for which proceeds could be spent. We construct and interpret a Federal debt limit before 1939.

JEL-codes: E6 H6 N21 N41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his, nep-hpe and nep-mac
Note: DAE EFG ME POL
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Published as Brief history of US debt limits before 1939 George J. Hall, Thomas J. Sargent Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2018, 115 (12) 2942-2945; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719687115

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