The World Economy and National Finance in Historical Perspective is a collection of essays and lectures by the distinguished economist, Charles P. Kindleberger. The main topic is the world economy of the past, present, and future, but the author also turns his deep historical understanding on a cluster of national financial problems faced by the United States and Germany.
The essays deal with the world economy and the place within it of the United States and Europe. Other topics treated include the succession of world economic leaders, and the spread of booms and crashes from one country to another, the quality of debt, financial intermediation and disintermediation, and the German inflation of 1919-23. In an important discussion of the United States' role in the world economy, the author places special emphasis on the responsibility that a country with such a leading economic role has of bringing about and maintaining economic stability.
This will appeal to economists, especially economic historians, and will also be of interest to the financial community.
Among the many books written by Kindleberger are The World in Depression 1929-1939; Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, and A Financial History of Western Europe. In addition, he has published several previous collections of essays including Europe and the Dollar; Economic Response, Comparative Studies in Trade, Finance and Growth; International Money; Multinational Excursions; Keynesianism vs Monetarism and Other Essays in Financial History; Marshall Plan Days; The International Economic Order: Essays on Financial Crisis and International Public Goods; and Historical Economics: Art or Science?