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Author: Charles R. Geisst
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207505
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 396
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Book Description
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.
Author: Charles R. Geisst
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812207505
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 396
Get Book
Book Description
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.
Author: Joseph Hanlon
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780852553077
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 374
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Book Description
..". comprehensive in its coverage, exacting in its standards of description and interpretation, and almost faultless in its use of source material and existing literature... " -- Anti-Apartheid News ..". an excellent compendium of information on the military and economic power that South Africa applies in dealing with its neighbors." -- Foreign Service Journal ..". important for the shaping of Western policy toward South Africa." -- The Book Exchange ..". impressive... indispensable." -- Third World Book Review "This is a very important book." -- Social Dynamics Hanlon pieces together the details of South Africa's military attacks on its neighbors and relates them to the control the South African state exercises through its economic power.
Author: Charles R. Geisst
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812244621
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 401
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Book Description
From the Roman Empire to the most recent financial crisis, this comprehensive economic history examines humanity's attempts to curb the abuse of debt while reaping the benefits of credit.
Author: Joan Robinson
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 1483263231
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296
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Book Description
Contributions to Modern Economics includes contributions to two great intellectual upheavals in economic theory: the Keynesian Revolution and the revival of the classical theory of profits led by Piero Sraffa. The formation of prices in capitalist and socialist economies and of international trade is also discussed. The evolution of these ideas is linked to the personal and historical events that influenced them. Comprised of 24 chapters, this book begins by describing the second crisis of economic theory, which is related to the first crisis — the great slump of the 1930s. The reader is then introduced to the theory of money and the analysis of output; obstacles to full employment; and the concept of hoarding. Subsequent chapters explore capital, profits, and prices, with emphasis on the theory of capital, imperfect competition, and the theory of value. International trade, capitalism, and beggar-my-neighbor remedies for unemployment are also examined. This monograph should be of interest to economists.
Author: Beth A. Simmons
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210128
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 348
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Book Description
In this work Beth Simmons presents a fresh view of why governments decided to abide by or defect from the gold standard during the 1920s and 1930s. Previous studies of the spread of the Great Depression have emphasized "tit-for-tat" currency and tariff manipulation and a subsequent cycle of destructive competition. Simmons, on the other hand, analyzes the influence of domestic politics on national responses to the international economy. In so doing, she powerfully confirms that different political regimes choose different economic adjustment strategies.
Author: E. D. Gerard
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 442
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Book Description
Author: Jagdish Bhagwati
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199715904
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 160
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Book Description
Jagdish Bhagwati, the internationally renowned economist who uniquely combines a reputation as the leading scholar of international trade with a substantial presence in public policy on the important issues of the day, shines here a critical light on Preferential Trade Agreements, revealing how the rapid spread of PTAs endangers the world trading system. Numbering by now well over 300, and rapidly increasing, these preferential trade agreements, many taking the form of Free Trade Agreements, have re-created the unhappy situation of the 1930s, when world trade was undermined by discriminatory practices. Whereas this was the result of protectionism in those days, ironically it is a result of misdirected pursuit of free trade via PTAs today. The world trading system is at risk again, the author argues, and the danger is palpable. Writing with his customary wit, panache and elegance, Bhagwati documents the growth of these PTAs, the reasons for their proliferation, and their deplorable consequences which include the near-destruction of the non-discrimination which was at the heart of the postwar trade architecture and its replacement by what he has called the spaghetti bowl of a maze of preferences. Bhagwati also documents how PTAs have undermined the prospects for multilateral freeing of trade, serving as stumbling blocks, instead of building blocks, for the objective of reaching multilateral free trade. In short, Bhagwati cogently demonstrates why PTAs are Termites in the Trading System.
Author: Dan Jacobson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
Author: Markus K. Brunnermeier
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400883334
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 457
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Book Description
How philosophical differences between Eurozone nations led to the Euro crisis—and where to go from here Why is Europe's great monetary endeavor, the Euro, in trouble? A string of economic difficulties in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and other Eurozone nations has left observers wondering whether the currency union can survive. In this book, Markus Brunnermeier, Harold James, and Jean-Pierre Landau argue that the core problem with the Euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the Eurozone, particularly Germany and France. But the authors also show how these seemingly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe’s survival. As the authors demonstrate, Germany, a federal state with strong regional governments, saw the Maastricht Treaty, the framework for the Euro, as a set of rules. France, on the other hand, with a more centralized system of government, saw the framework as flexible, to be overseen by governments. The authors discuss how the troubles faced by the Euro have led its member states to focus on national, as opposed to collective, responses, a reaction explained by the resurgence of the battle of economic ideas: rules vs. discretion, liability vs. solidarity, solvency vs. liquidity, austerity vs. stimulus. Weaving together economic analysis and historical reflection, The Euro and the Battle of Ideas provides a forensic investigation and a road map for Europe’s future.
Author: David E. Spiro
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 1501711970
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 195
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Book Description
Between 1973 and 1980, the cost of crude oil rose suddenly and dramatically, precipitating convulsions in international politics. Conventional wisdom holds that international capital markets adjusted automatically and remarkably well: enormous amounts of money flowed into oil-rich states, and efficient markets then placed that new money in cash-poor Third World economies. David Spiro has followed the money trail, and the story he tells contradicts the accepted beliefs. Most of the sudden flush of new oil wealth didn't go to poor oil-importing countries around the globe. Instead, the United States made a deal with Saudi Arabia to sell it U.S. securities in secret, a deal resulting in a substantial portion of Saudi assets being held by the U.S. government. With this arrangement, the U.S. government violated its agreements with allies in the developed world. Spiro argues that American policymakers took this action to prop up otherwise intolerable levels of U.S. public debt. In effect, recycled OPEC wealth subsidized the debt-happy policies of the U.S. government as well as the debt-happy consumption of its citizenry.
