Book Forum 

# *Inflated: How Money and Debt Built the American Dream*

(Wiley, 2010)

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Date and Time 

February 8, 2011 1 - 2:30 PM EST 

Location 

Hayek Auditorium 

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##### Featuring 

Featuring the author **Christopher Whalen**, Institutional Risk Analytics; with comments by **Dean Baker**, Center for Economic and Policy Research; and **Alex Pollock**, American Enterprise Institute; moderated by **Mark Calabria**, Cato Institute. 

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Americans view themselves as reasonably prudent and sober people when it comes to matters of money. Yet as a community, we also seem to believe that we are entitled to a lifestyle that is well beyond our income, a tendency that goes back to the earliest days of the United States and particularly to get-rich-quick experiences ranging from the Gold Rush of the 1840s to the real-estate bubble of the early 21st century. *Inflated* examines this apparent conflict, as it seeks to tell the story of money inflation and public debt as recurring features of American life. *Inflated* also draws on the insights of Austrian business-cycle theory in painting its picture of American economic history.

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