The United States came into existence through the success of the rebels in a war in which they -- the aforesaid rebels -- fought with the aid of inflated money ("not worth a continental") and potentially destabilizing debt. The political compact we know as the U.S. Constitution came about largely because of that fiscal and monetary crisis. It came about because of the vision and energy of Alexander Hamilton, who brought Madison and Jay into the fold so together they could write magnificent advocacy known as The Federalist , and who was then charged by the first President with the gigantic task of getting the new Treasury underway. Today, many of the nations of Europe are heavily in debt. They have sought a higher degree of unity in part as a reaction to that indebtedness, and thus new unity includes a single currency, a European Central Bank., and closer cooperation among the finance ministers of the nations that share this currency. This...