CREDIT TRANSACTIONS IN SECURITIES 191

We have seen how Jones bought his Steel stock on a 50-point
 margin. In obtaining more stock than he paid for, he
employed $10,000 which he did not own. Since in effect he
obtained value in stock for money he did not own, exchanging
it for 100 shares of Steel, he thus sold money short and became
long of stock.
Also, when Thompson sold 100 shares of American Locomotive
 short, he received a credit on his broker’s books for
$10,000, in addition to his margin of $3,000, to balance the
debit of the 100 shares of stock. Consequently, although perhaps
 he did not think of it in just this way, he really bought
money on margin at the same time that he went short of the
stock.

Fluctuating Values in Goods and in Money.—Since the
value of goods is so invariably expressed in terms of money, it
is difficult to realize that the value of money itself, like any
commodity, constantly fluctuates.®
Because a margin purchase of goods inevitably produces a
short sale of money, the margin purchase and the short sale
are inseparable operations in any market in which credit transactions
 occur. If it is an evil deed to sell stocks short, then
it must be equally wicked to sell money short. And, if we cannot
 purchase any commodity on margin without selling money
short, then all credit transactions must be wicked. Thus the
logical outcome of driving the wild asses of mistaken ethics
into the field of financial economics, is a return to the Dark
Ages, when there were not only no wicked credit transactions
hut no business, law, order. or civilization either.

Twofold Aspects of Margin Purchases.—The somewhat
complicated results arising from this double nature of credit
transactions may be summarized by saying that whoever purchases
 stocks on margin has a double chance for profit and a
double chance for loss in the transaction. As we have seen in
the instance of Jones and his 100 shares of Steel, if the price
"% See Appendix VIIb.