The moral of the tale is not, as Polonius instructed his son Laertes, “neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Without both, humanity might still be living in caves. Rather, we need to limit the supply of and demand for credit to what the economy is capable of producing. How to do this and maintain freedom of enterprise is one of the great unsettled questions of political economy.Project Syndicate
The Moral Economy of Debt
Robert Skidelsky, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University and a fellow of the British Academy in history and economics, is a member of the British House of Lords
Who decides what our economy is capable of producing?
ReplyDeleteEvolutionary history shows that we've always produced whatever we set our hearts on.
Desired Outcomes first, then distributed credit when, where & as needed.
Isn't that the definition of a fiat currency? That currency supply tracks aggregate demand, and NOT the inverse?
"But that is a drop in the ocean. In the US alone, students owe more than $1 trillion, or around 6% of GDP. "
ReplyDeleteWay to mix up your stocks and flows Skidelsky!
"the family wanted to take a trip in their car for 300 miles, but the speed limit was only 60!"
How about you skedaddle to retirement Skidelsky...
"Morality, however, has not been entirely on the side of the creditor. In New Testament Greek, debt means “sin.”
ReplyDelete'hamartia" doesnt mean "debt".... ???????
But, though it might be sinful to go into debt (??????) , Matthew 6:12 supports absolution: “forgive us our debts (or we go to 'hell'? LOL!) , as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Wrong again here is the interlinear:
http://scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mat6.pdf
'opheilEmata' is 'owes' or 'debt'... not "sin"... "sin" is 'hamartia' or 'missing'....
Here is Romans 6:
http://scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/rom6.pdf
right in 6:1 'sin' is 'hamartia', 'grace' is 'charis'....
oh brother.....
And PS: 'moroi' means 'stupid':
http://scripture4all.org/OnlineInterlinear/NTpdf/mat23.pdf
"traditional societies embraced the “Law of Jubilee,” a ceremonial wiping clean of the slate."
Well maybe if we had majesterial people who knew they were not "out of money!" , and hence the whole thing is more or less a spoils system, they could make this decree a whole lot easier....