The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars

Event offered by:
Foreign Policy Association

Event Details

Date:
Monday, June 11, 2007
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM 
Location:
Grupo Santander
45 E. 53rd St. (between Park & Madison Avenues)
New York, NY
Event type
Lecture / Panel  

Event Transcripts and Video

Speaker: Robert Hormats
Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs (International) and
Managing Director of Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Presider: Gonzalo de Las Heras
Chairman of Foreign Policy Association

Robert Hormats discusses his book The Price of Liberty: Paying for America's Wars

About the book:

More than two centuries ago, America's first secretary of the treasury, Alexander Hamilton, identified the Revolutionary War debt as a threat to the nation's creditworthiness and its very existence. In response, he established financial principles for securing the country—principles that endure to this day. In this provocative history, Robert D. Hormats, one of America's leading experts on international finance, shows how leaders from Madison and Lincoln to FDR and Reagan have followed Hamilton's ideals, from the greenback and a progressive income tax to the Victory Bond and Victory Garden campaigns and cost-sharing with allies.

Drawing on these historical lessons, Hormats argues that the rampant borrowing to pay for the war in Iraq and the short-sighted tax cuts in the face of a long-term war on terrorism run counter to American tradition and place our country's security in peril. To meet the threats facing us, Hormats contends, we must significantly realign our economic policies—on taxes, Social Security, Medicare, and oil dependency—to safeguard our liberty and our future.

 

 

Robert Hormats, Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs (International) and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs

 

Event Speakers

    • Robert D. Hormats - Speaker

      Robert D. Hormats is the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs (International) and a managing director of Goldman, Sachs & Co. He has served in numerous presidential administrations and is a former member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. His articles appear frequently in The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times, and Foreign Affairs. He lives in New York City.

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