Economics of trust. What if suspicion required protracted negotiations to trade money for milk at the corner store? What if the whole economy was that complicated? The ability to trust one another in big and small economic exchanges "is responsible for the difference between the richest countries and the poorest," writes Tim Harford in this Forbes article. He suggests that some economists can even put a dollar value on trust. A huge number.

http://go.philly.com/trust1

Developing trust. This World Bank white paper explores the role of trust in the financial sector. Government plays a part in fostering trust by improving regulations and the rest of the "financial infrastructure." But it bases most trust in "good conduct through market forces." How are we doing with that?

http://go.philly.com/trust2

Debt trust. Danny Schechter's 2006 documentary, In Debt We Trust, took a prescient look at what its promotional material described as "the money we owe, and the bill that's coming due." The film, about credit card debt, is subtitled, "America Before the Bubble Bursts." The prophetic documentary's Web site has several resources for dealing with debt, including "Top Ten Tips to Stop the Squeeze," to help consumers manage credit card fees and other expenses.

http://go.philly.com/trust3

College trust. We found many academic papers from British and American universities that address the issue of trust in economics. Here are several of them:

Cambridge University lecturer Michael Pollitt takes a heady look at the decline in trust and other forms of "social capital" over the last two generations in the United States and the United Kingdom - and how to get it back.

http://go.philly.com/trust4 (.pdf)

Complete with complicated equations, this draft of lecture notes by New York University's Luis Cabral is called "The Economics of Trust and Reputation: A Primer." With its discussion of topics such as "Bayesian models," you'll have to fasten on your thinking cap for this one.

http://go.philly.com/trust5 (.pdf)