Our national debate isn’t on a pathway to solutions. It’s on a pendulum… back and forth: Do we have more government or less government? More of social services or less of social services? Raise taxes or lower taxes? These arguments don’t end. Why does economics need a rethink? Because we’re having the wrong arguments.

This class will ask, could better ideas about what passes for economic fundamentals make capitalism more fair in its outcomes and less needy of government intervention? Is it actually possible to retire some of our political debates?

The instructor, Stephen Taft, has worked for decades on Wall Street managing others peoples’ money. Over that time, he delved into economic studies to help him cut through the chatter that drives many investment choices. What he found there is a misbegotten justice. He is eager to share his findings.

This course will explore the history credit, defined as the introduction of time into value. The course will proceed chronologically from the time of William Petty, John Law and Richard Cantillon in the late seventeen and early eighteen century through three thematic sessions.

• From sovereign wealth to trade credit

• From commerce to sovereign credit

• From central banking to populist money

The instructor, Walter E. Perry holds a BA and PhD in the traditional curriculum of Ancient Greek. He has done extensive work on analyzing the US money supply during the great inflation of 1978 – 1982, bond indentures, insurance contract and derivative instruments of all sorts. Dr. Perry is the founder of Fiduciary Automation, an IT company that instantiate regulations as executable code which could be run against proposed financial instruments or strategies to render determinative opinions as to their compliance and to illuminate ambiguities.

Dates: Wednesdays: 4/05, 4/12, 4/19; from 6:30PM to 8:00PM ET

Location: Online via Zoom

Note: This is an online event. Access information for Zoom will be made available via email the day of each session.