Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (30728)	5/25/2002 2:18:09 PM
From: LLLefty	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>>"Excessive" is not defined. I guess that is why Talmud Scholars abound<<< Yes indeed. Actually, the Talmud laid down some sophisticated commentaries and guidelines for economic activity, including interest rates. In general, I believe, rabbis were often given responsibility for deciding what was fair interest. Maimonides believed that lending money at interest was benificial in helping an economy to grow. In this respect, it was likely a serious error on the part of the midieval church which considered all interest as userous and depriving farmers, for example, of the ability to buy seeds, livestock and tools or to recover from a crop failure. A few of my favorites from the Talmud: "The testimony of usurer is not valid in court....The man who does not lend money on interest, either to Jew or Gentile, walks with honor... A man who is careful to greet his creditors warmly is guilty of usury in words....If you have received a plow or a pillow as collateral for a loan, return the plow each morning and the pillow each night... The history of how Jews became associated with money lending is enlightening. In brief, since the Church considered it sin to accept interest and the Jews were doomed to perdition anyway, well, let them take on an additional sin. For Jews, often banned from the land or trades, it became one of few ways of earning a living. Much of this livelihood, in turn, was confiscated back in the form of exhorbitant taxes. In England, when money lending later became the preserve of the banks and financiers, usurous interest rates were, as Pitt the younger described it, "strangling" the Treasury; he turned to Engish Jews for assistance. footnote: In 19th and more than half of the 20th century America, interestingly, banking became virtually off-limits to Jews at any level. That story goes thatduring the depression some Jewish girls wore a cross when applying for a teller position. If the Jews are so good at handling money, how come Israel is in such an economic mess? And why haven't my kids become millionaires to support me in a style to which I never became accustomed?