“We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves; and consequently within what may be deemed the period of a generation, or the life of the majority.” MayWisdomPoliticsPayEconomyGenerationsPeriodsMajorityBoundsDebtLiberalismPosteritySaddles Book:The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816 Source: The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence and Papers, 1808-1816
“In addition to myself and a number of others, President Clinton talked about the deficit and the debt issue. And he pointed out, really, what I pointed out, which is that when he left office, we actually had projected surpluses for a long period of time, because when he put together his economic plan, he did it in a balanced way.” WayLongTogetherLeftPresidentNumbersIssuesPlansEconomicPeriodsOfficeClintonDebtBalancedDeficitSurplusLong Periods Of TimePresident Clinton Author:Chris Van Hollen
“We [Americans] inherited British law, which is like the new "reforms" that are being made now, in the sense that people are permanently entrapped in debt, if they once fall into bankruptcy. The reason that the law was changed in American history - the whole early period of the formation of the country was moving away from British law into a law that is generated here and that conforms to the sense of what is appropriate here.” PeopleIfsMadeCountryReasonWholeMovingLawFallChangedPeriodsBritishDebtReformAppropriateAmerican HistoryConformFormationBankruptcyMoving Away Author:Marilynne Robinson
“Perhaps more than anything else, failure to recognize the precariousness and fickleness of confidence - especially in cases in which large short-term debts need to be rolled over continuously - is the key factor that gives rise to the this-time-is-different syndrome. Highly indebted governments, banks, or corporations can seem to be merrily rolling along for an extended period, when bang! - confidence collapses, lenders disappear, and a crisis hits.” NeedsGivingDifferentSeemsGovernmentTermCasesKeysPeriodsCrisisDebtDisappearFactorsCorporationsCollapseRollingBangsShort TermSyndromesIndebtedLendersRolling Along Author:Carmen Reinhart
“In about one-third of credit card consolidations, within a short period of time, the cards come back out of the wallet, and in no time at all, they're charged back up. Then you're in an even worse position, because you have the credit card debt and the consolidation loan to worry about. You're in a hole that's twice as deep - and twice as steep.” WorryPositionPeriodsThirdsCreditDebtHolesCardsLoanCredit CardWalletsSteepConsolidationCredit Card Debt Author:Jean Chatzky