Three Cheers for the Next Economic Bubble

... bonds that financed the building of the Erie Canal in the early nineteenth century were guaranteed by the state of New York. In the mid-nineteenth century, the federal government subsidized railroad construction through massive grants of public ...

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/137044/william-h-janeway/the-good-news-about-the-next-economic-bubble?cid=rss-rss_xml-the_good_news_about_the_next_e-000000