Fiscal illusion Mourao (2008) attempts to quantify fiscal illusion empirically for almost 70 democracies since 1960. Fiscal illusion Fiscal illusion is a public choice theory of government expenditure first developed by the Italian economist Amilcare Puviani in his 1903 book "Teoria della illusione finanziaria" ("Theory of Financial Illusion" (not yet translated into English, but translated into German in 1960 under the title "Die Illusionen in der öffentlichen Finanzwirtschaft", Berlin: Dunker & Humblot, 1960)). Fiscal illusion suggests that when government revenues are not completely transparent or are not fully perceived by taxpayers, then the cost of government is seen to be less than
The Financial Lives of the Poets The Financial Lives of the Poets The Financial Lives of the Poets is the fifth novel by the American writer Jess Walter. It is a comedic novel first published in 2009. The novel explores the global financial crisis, through the eyes of a business reporter turned poet. Reception of the novel was generally positive. "The New York Times" was largely positive, calling it successful at "captur[ing] the fiscal panic and frustration" and full of "blistering wisecracks". "The Los Angeles Times" called it "darkly funny, surprisingly tender [and] verse sprinkled", though the review highlighted the characters in the novel as flawed