Quotes About Credit

are deceptive. Almost all of the new forms of paper money that emerged were not originally created by governments at all; they were simply ways of recognizing and expanding the use of credit instruments that emerged from everyday economic transactions.

Credit Theorists insisted that money is not a commodity but an accounting tool. In other words, it is not a "thing" at all. For a Credit Theorist can no more touch a dollar or a deutschmark than you can touch an hour or a cubic centimeter. Units of currency are merely abstract units of measurement, and as the credit theorists correctly noted, historically, such abstract systems of accounting emerged long before the use of any particular token of exchange.

In fact, our standard account of monetary history is precisely backwards. We did not begin with barter, discover money, and then eventually develop credit systems. It happened precisely the other way around. What we now call virtual money came first. Coins came much later, and their use spread only unevenly, never completely replacing credit systems. Barter, in turn, appears to be largely a kind of accidental byproduct of the use of coinage or paper money.

Insofar as there is a politics, here, it seems a variation on a theme seen since the dawn of capitalism. Ultimately, it's sociality itself that's treated as abusive, criminal, demonic. To this, most ordinary Americans—including Black and Latino Americans, recent immigrants, and others who were formerly excluded from credit—have responded with a stubborn insistence on continuing to love one another.

asked. As a result, while credit systems tend to dominate in periods of relative social peace, or across networks of trust (whether created by states or, in most periods, transnational institutions like merchant guilds or communities of faith), in periods characterized by widespread war and plunder, they tend to be replaced by precious metal.

If money is a just a yardstick, what then does it measure? The answer was simple: debt.

The flip side of credit is blame. A tendency to blame others, or circumstances, is generally a recipe for unhappiness in life.

Oppenheimer had, in his own mind at least, exaggerated his role in the making of the atomic bomb and, correspondingly, exaggerated his guilt, seeing himself as, in the Bhagavad-Gita, Death the destroyer of worlds. Von Neumann agreed. "Some people profess guilt to claim credit for the sin," von Neumann liked to tell Ulam.

If everybody in the world suddenly decided not to use their credit cards for three days, the whole global economy would be in serious trouble. (Recall how we were all urged to get out our credit cards after 9/11 and get back to shopping.) Which is why so much effort is put toward getting money out of our pockets and keeping it circulating.

To see so much misery everywhere, I suspect that God is not rich. He keeps up appearances, it is true, but I feel the pinch. He gives a revolution as a merchant, whose credit is low, gives a ball.

What the light of your mind, which is the direct inspiration of the Almighty, pronounces incredible, that, in God's name, leave uncredited. At your peril do not try believing that!

Jesus took your punishment, and God gave you credit for Jesus' perfection.

My voice belongs to me, from God. People will comment, "Your voice helped me through." Maybe it's God in me, because I don't take credit for that.

I believe in God, I just give him more credit than being a single parent and an author.

If I ever tried to take credit for what God deserves the credit, He would be displeased with me, and I'm more interested in pleasing Him than pleasing ego or vanity.

My voice is definitely a big present for me from God, because it's not like I can even take credit for it.

It just gripes me hollow, the way God always sneaks in to take the credit.

Almost everything I do is related to my ability to hire good people. I don't take much of the credit myself. I think I have a good eye.

I like a man who can be a real friend, has a good sense of humor, a good pair of shoes and a healthy gold card.

Liberals get credit for good intentions, and that's about it, because everything they do fails.

I can't even get a credit card without three credit bureaus saying I'm good enough.

The banks are not lending, at least from what I see. They were so wild and reckless back in the good times that they got burned terribly.

The human wish to credit good things as miraculous and to charge bad things to another account is apparently universal.

There are 300,000 new jobs and Bush said he's confused, 'Can I take credit for good news that I didn't even make up?'