"Perhaps the reason is because what was true in 1710 is still true. Presented with the prospect of its own eternity, capitalism-or any way, financial capitalism-simply explodes. Because if there's no end to it, there's absolutely no reason not to generate credit-that is, future money-infinitely. Recent events would certainly seem to con rm this. The period leading up to 2oo8 was one in which many began to believe that capitalism really was going to be around forever; at the very least, no one seemed any longer to be able to imagine an alternative. The immediate effect was a series of increasingly reckless bubbles that brought the whole apparatus crashing down."
- David Graeber, Debt, the first 5,000 years, p360
- David Graeber, Debt, the first 5,000 years, p360