The word “usura” (Latin for “usury”) appears frequently in Pound’s Cantos, and he uses it as a synecdoche for the institutions of capitalism. In Pound’s poetry, economics is both political and personal: While much of his work does address economic issues literally, there is a deeper and more universal subtext to Pound’s discussions of usura. Usura is literal monetary debt, yes, but it also describes more abstract and personal debts which govern an individual’s interactions with others and even a sense of spiritual indebtedness, emerging from original sin.