A Political Economy of American Hegemony: Buildups, Booms, and Busts

In Buildups, Booms, and Busts, Thomas Oatley explores how America's military buildups have produced postwar economic booms that have culminated in monetary and financial crises. The 2008 subprime crisis – as well as the housing bubble that produced it – was the most recent manifestation of this buildup, boom, and bust cycle, developing as a consequence of the decision to deficit finance the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Earlier instances of financial crises were generated by deficit-finance...