 years in which America has run a budget surplus before that in the previous 200 years America almost always ran a budget surplus so I'd say that I can point to those eras which were relatively better but this is a constant march of the state which has undermined capitalism over time it's in the book in fact I have a whole chapter on where capitalism I think is still working well and my exhibit a there is Switzerland that it's among the top 20 economies in the world