In Day Two of The Constitutional Doctrine of Monetary Closure, Nicolin Decker examines the first monetary failure of the American Republic—not as an accident of history, but as the predictable result of constitutional design.

Following independence, the United States possessed laws, courts, and debts—but lacked the institutional authority necessary to bring obligations to a lawful close. This episode explains why the Articles of Confederation, while sufficient for waging war, proved incapable of sustaining economic coherence once peace arrived.

Rather than attributing collapse to mismanagement, unrest, or market panic, Day Two situates the post-war depression of the 1780s within the structure of the Confederation itself: a system that could circulate obligations, but denied i ...