Source: Currency and Credit (1919), Chapter II, "Metallic Money", p. 20 (2nd ed. 1921)
Context: The use of money does not disestablish the normal process of creating credit. Money, it is true, is always being paid into the banks by the retailers and others who receive it in the course of business, and they of course receive bank credits in return for the money thus deposited. But for the manufacturers and others who have to pay money out, credits are still created by the exchange of obligations, the banker's immediate obligation being given to his customer in exchange for the customer's obligation to repay at a future date. We shall still describe this dual operation as the creation of credit. By its means the banker creates the means of payment out of nothing, whereas when he receives a bag of money from his customer, one means of payment, a bank credit, is merely substituted for another, an equal amount of cash.
“Banks lend by creating credit. They create the means of payment out of nothing.”
Ralph M. Hawtrey as assistant secretary of the British Treasury, quoted in: Robert Latham Owen (1939), National economy and the banking system of the United States. p. 102
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Ralph George Hawtrey 11
British economist 1879–1975Related quotes
Testimony to the Pujo Committee (1912)
Last interview (1980)
Context: I’m 40, I wanna talk to the people my age. I’m happy if the young people like it, and I’m happy if the old people like it, I’m talkin’ to guys and gals that have been through what we went through, together — the sixties group that has survived. Survived the war, the drugs, the politics, the violence on the street – the whole she-bang – that we’ve survived it and we’re here. And I’m talkin’ to them. And the "Woman" song is to Yoko, but it’s to all women. And, because my role in society – or any artist or poet’s role – is to try to express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel, not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all. And it’s like that’s the job of the artist in society, not to... they’re not some alienated being living on the outskirts of town. It’s fine to live on the outskirts of town, but artists must reflect what we all are. That’s what it’s about – artists, or poets or whatever you wanna call it. And that’s what I’m tryin’ to express on behalf of all the men to all the women, through my own feelings about women – when it dawned on me, "God! It is the other half of the sky" as the late-great Chairman MacDougal said, right? I mean, they are the other half of the sky, and without them there is nothing. And without us there’s nothing. There’s only the two together creating children, creating society. So what’s all this B. S. about, you know, "women are this" and "men are that" – we’re all human, man. We’re all human. And, I am tryin’ to say it to Yoko, but to all women, you know? On behalf of all men, in a way. If that’s taken it too much on meself, I feel that artists are that – they’re reflections of society... Mirrors.
In interview with Gordon Brown at No 10 Downing Street, as stated in The Sun (UK) newspaper, 11th December 2009.
You Can Lead an Atheist to Evidence, But You Can't Make Him Think (2009)
Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech in Warren, Michigan (August 11, 2016)
“We create order out of chaos, beauty and meaning out of ugly randomness.”
Source: The Throne of Fire
Part III, Chapter XIII, The Reservoir Plan and Credit Control, p. 154
Storage and Stability (1937)
“The process by which banks create money is so simple that the mind is repelled.”
Source: Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975), Chapter III, Banks, p. 18