Scottish Enlightenment-era philosopher David Hume penned a prescient and incisive essay about public debt in 1752, long before our current age of fiat currencies and staggering federal deficits. He would have been horrified at how public finance has evolved — or devolved, from his perspective — over the preceding 250-some years.
To Hume, national debt is a slowly metastasizing cancer at the core of society. If it isn't cut out completely, it will eventually consume the host body. "It must, indeed, be one of these two events; either the nation must destroy public credit,