Usury

Download or read book Beggar Thy Neighbor written by Charles R. Geisst and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The practice of charging interest on loans has been controversial since it was first mentioned in early recorded history. Lending is a powerful economic tool, vital to the development of society but it can also lead to disaster if left unregulated. Prohibitions against excessive interest, or usury, have been found in almost all societies since antiquity. Whether loans were made in kind or in cash, creditors often were accused of beggar-thy-neighbor exploitation when their lending terms put borrowers at risk of ruin. While the concept of usury reflects transcendent notions of fairness, its definition has varied over time and place: Roman law distinguished between simple and compound interest, the medieval church banned interest altogether, and even Adam Smith favored a ceiling on interest. But in spite of these limits, the advantages and temptations of lending prompted financial innovations from margin investing and adjustable-rate mortgages to credit cards and microlending. In Beggar Thy Neighbor, financial historian Charles R. Geisst tracks the changing perceptions of usury and debt from the time of Cicero to the most recent financial crises. This comprehensive economic history looks at humanity's attempts to curb the abuse of debt while reaping the benefits of credit. Beggar Thy Neighbor examines the major debt revolutions of the past, demonstrating that extensive leverage and debt were behind most financial market crashes from the Renaissance to the present day. Geisst argues that usury prohibitions, as part of the natural law tradition in Western and Islamic societies, continue to play a key role in banking regulation despite modern advances in finance. From the Roman Empire to the recent Dodd-Frank financial reforms, usury ceilings still occupy a central place in notions of free markets and economic justice.

Download or read book Defence of Usury written by Jeremy Bentham and published by . This book was released on 1837 with total page 54 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Church and the Usurers written by Brian M. McCall and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Professor McCall explains in a scholarly yet accessible manner the core principles of the usury doctrine. Tracing its history from Biblical texts, through Aristotelian philosophy and Roman law, to the great scholastic synthesis Professor McCall separates the unchanging principles from the changes in there applications to the new economic realities.

Download or read book The idea of usury : from tribal brotherhood to universal otherhood written by Benjamin Nelson and published by . This book was released on 1969 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Usury written by Zippy and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-04-16 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Understanding usury requires an understanding of how the nature of some contracts differs, fundamentally and categorically, from the nature of others. Usury is not a matter of the same kind of contract differing only by 'excessive interest'. Usurious contracts constitute a kind of contract which is intrinsically immoral by its very nature. This book is intended to help people understand what usury is - and is not - and answer many of the questions which naturally arise.

Download or read book Defence of Usury written by Jeremy Bentham and published by . This book was released on 1788 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book On Commerce and Usury (1524) written by Martin Luther and published by Anthem Press. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume presents Martin Luther’s contribution to the modern economic sciences, providing a detailed introduction and revised translation of his major pamphlet on economic matters, ‘On Commerce and Usury’ (‘Von Kauffshandlung vnd Wucher’, 1524). In his teachings on indulgences Luther picked up on the question of hoarding money, and was among the earliest voices in early modern Europe calling for an ‘ethical’ economics. Luther’s work prefigured many later contributions to modern economic theory, from the mercantilists and cameralists to the German Historical School.