From The Liberator Online, Vol. 14, No. 4‘s Persuasion Power Point by Michael Cloud, regarding the “credit crisis/crunch”:

Let’s examine the word they’re using to define the issue: “credit.” The word “credit” is one side of the coin. The flip side is the word “debt.” You can’t have one side of the coin without the other.

“All credit is debt,” wrote Henry Hazlitt in Economics in One Lesson. “Proposals for an increased volume of credit, therefore, are merely another name for proposals for an increased burden of debt. When they say the way to economic salvation is to increase credit, it is just as if they said the way to economic salvation is to increase debt: these are different names for the same thing seen from opposite sides.”

So why are the analysts and commentators only talking about “credit”?

Why aren’t beating the drum for “debt”?

They could claim: “To make corporations solvent, we must put them deeper in debt.”

Or: “Borrowing and debt are the lifeblood of American business.”

Or: “We have a debt crisis: the only remedy is to let business get further and further into debt.”

Or: “Unless major corporations can dramatically increase their financial liabilities, they can’t start turning a profit.”

Or: “Wall Street’s biggest problem is a lack of access to greater borrowing, more liabilities, and increased financial burdens.”

Or: “Major corporations are failing because they do not owe enough money, because they cannot run up a bigger debt.”

Or: “Businesses are failing because of a shortage of debt.”

Turn over the word coin. Take their sentences, their words, and replace the word “credit” with the word “debt.” Ask them whether they still believe it. Ask their listeners and readers whether they still want it.

Well worth your consideration, folks.