Home > Topic > the crucial difference
1 " It was an idea that made the crucial difference between British and Iberian America – an idea about the way people should govern themselves. Some people make the mistake of calling that idea ‘democracy’ and imagining that any country can adopt it merely by holding elections. In reality, democracy was the capstone of an edifice that had as its foundation the rule of law – to be precise, the sanctity of individual freedom and the security of private property rights, ensured by representative, constitutional government. "
― Niall Ferguson , Civilization: The West and the Rest
2 " [T]he ABCP market was built on a fatal flaw: a significant mismatch between the duration of the underlying assets (long-term) and the duration of the paper itself (short-term). While this structure is not unusual -- banks use it all the time -- the crucial difference is that banks have a strong liquidity provider in the event of a problem: the Bank of Canada. The trusts, however, were left in limbo. "
― Paul Halpern , Back from the Brink: Lessons from the Canadian Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Crisis
3 " Between love and a friendship, the crucial difference is that when the love breaks you will realise that the friendship is what kept the two of you together. "
