In 1758, Benjamin Franklin published a collection of homey aphorisms that Americans may soon be re-reading around their 2008 kitchen tables.

“A penny saved is a penny earned,” wrote Franklin. And “the Borrower is the slave to the Lender.” And “be frugal and be free.”

Truth is, old Ben knew how to live high on the hog, in the salons of Paris and London. But today, as the American economy and credit dry up, his pithy old sayings on thrift and industry and debt may get yet another lease on life.

This hour On Point: Benjamin Franklin’s “The Way to Wealth” at 250 — and catching our ears again.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Michael Mandel, chief economist for BusinessWeek.

Jill Lepore, professor of early American history at Harvard University and author of “New York Burning: Liberty and Slavery in an Eighteenth-Century City.” Her article on Ben Franklin and his book “The Way to Wealth” appeared in the January 28 edition of The New Yorker.

Teresa Ghilarducci, professor of economics and the Schwartz Chair in Economic Policy Analysis at the New School.