But her ability to go further and further into debt is based on the presumption of brighter days around the corner and the success of her schemes and ambitions. In both cases, the characters are motivated by the hope that, eventually, they will find the means of overcoming their debts or settling their accounts. Of course, we need not look to century-old literature for such instruction: in this day and age of “casino capitalism,” a great many of us have carried a credit-card balance or owed student loans or otherwise been in a debt we did not know how to pay, but which we had to believe would, in the future, somehow be alleviated.

Max Haiven, Cultures of Financialization, loc. 195