When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.
BonoRead
Thus, our national circulating medium is now at the mercy of loan transactions of banks, which lend, not money, but promises to supply money they do not possess
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights the precarious nature of modern banking, where banks issue loans based on promises rather than actual money.
Irving Fisher's quote raises concerns about the trust placed in banks and the modern banking system, suggesting that banks lend out more money than they actually have, relying on promises rather than tangible assets. This practice can lead to economic instability and puts the financial well-being of the nation at risk, as it intertwines public trust with the unpredictable nature of bank loans and credit.
Themes
BanksLoansMoneyPromisesEconomy
In practice
Example use cases
In a financial seminar discussing the risks of reliance on loans.
Similar quotes
Instead of presiding over an economic system that panders to big business and a wealthy elite, a more human economy must be established which meets the needs of African women and young people.
Winnie ByanyimaRead
The only way America can reduce the long-term budget deficit, maintain vital services, protect Social Security and Medicare, invest more in education and infrastructure, and not raise taxes on the working middle class is by raising taxes on the super rich.
Robert ReichRead
Drug companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research, more on research on lifestyle drugs than on life saving drugs, and almost nothing on diseases that affect developing countries only. This is not surprising. Poor people cannot afford drugs, and drug companies make investments that yield the highest returns.
Joseph StiglitzRead
Capitalism and market forces are very powerful in producing wealth and innovation. But we need to ensure that these forces act in the common interest.
Thomas PikettyRead
Our public credit is good, but the abundance of paper has produced a spirit of gambling in the funds, which has laid up our ships at the wharves as too slow instruments of profit, and has even disarmed the hand of the tailor of his needle and thimble. They say the evil will cure itself. I wish it may; but I have rarely seen a gamester cured, even by the disasters of his vocation.
Thomas JeffersonRead