TY  - JOUR
AU  - Hall, George J
AU  - Sargent, Thomas J
TI  - A History of U.S. Debt Limits
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 21799
PY  - 2015
Y2  - December 2015
DO  - 10.3386/w21799
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w21799
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w21799.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
George J. Hall
Department of Economics
Brandeis University
415 South Street
Waltham, MA 02453
E-Mail: ghall@brandeis.edu

Thomas J. Sargent
Department of Economics
New York University
19 W. 4th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY  10012
Tel: 612/373-4383
Fax: 650/723-1687
E-Mail: thomas.sargent@nyu.edu
AB  - Congress first imposed an aggregate debt limit in 1939 when it delegated  decisions about designing US debt instruments to the Treasury. Before World War I, Congress designed each  bond and specified a maximum amount of each bond that the Treasury could  issue.  It  usually specified purposes for which  proceeds could be spent. We  construct and interpret a Federal debt limit before 1939.
ER  -