Introduction and summary / John B. Shoven and Joel Waldfogel -- Federal policy and the accumulation of private debt / C. Eugene Steuerle -- Corporate leverage and leveraged buyouts in the eighties / Margaret M. Blair and Robert E. Litan -- Debt, equity, and the taxation of corporate cash flows / Alan J. Auerbach -- Distinguishing debt from equity in the junk bond era / Jeremy I. Bulow, Lawrence H. Summers, and Victoria P. Summers -- Converting corporations to partnerships through leverage / Myron S. Scholes and Mark A. Wolfson