In an economy that depends on credit, people have to decide who is trustworthy and will keep their promises, and who is not. 2016 Maguire Chair Bruce Carruthers considers how credit and credit decision-making in the U.S. has developed suring the 19th and 20th-centuries with the invention and spread of credit ratings and scores. These augmented and even replaced older methods that depended on individual reputations and personal relationships, and eventually governed the allocation of consumer and business credit. Speaker Biography: Bruce Carruthers is the John D. MacArthur Chair and professor of sociology and director of the Buffet Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University. He is the author or coauthor of five books on markets, business, the economy, and politics. His most recent book is "Money and Credit: A Sociological Approach." At Northwestern, his areas of research include the historical evolution of credit as a problem in the sociology of trust, regulatory arbitrage, derivative markets, and the regulation of credit in early 20th century America. Carruthers has held visiting fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin. He also received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. For transcript and more information, visit www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=7745

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