“Beautiful credit! The foundation of modern society. Who shall say that this is not the golden age of mutual trust, of

unlimited reliance upon human promises? That is a peculiar condition of society which enables a whole nation to

instantly recognize point and meaning in the familiar newspaper anecdote, which puts into the mouth of a

distinguished speculator in lands and mines this remark: ‘I

wasn’t worth a cent two years ago, and now I owe two million dollars.’ ”

 —Mark Twain, The Gilded Age

“The private control of credit is the  modern form of slavery.”

—Upton Sinclair

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