Usury

[From an e-list, Dec. 2003]

Cathy CareerWoman: "I just heard that Steve borrowed money from a loan shark!"

Patty PTAMeeting: "What?? Why did he do that?"

Cathy CareerWoman: "The bank turned him down for a loan. The bank's loan officer, Mr. Goldfeldbergwitz, said Steve had too little income to qualify for a loan. So Steve found some guy at the race track to loan him some money."

Patty PTAMeeting: "Doesn't Steve know that he has to pay an outrageous interest rate to that loan shark -- in addition to maybe getting his legs broken if he fails to repay the loan?"

Cathy CareerWoman: "I hope he knows. Gee, what kind of sleazy people would loan out money in such a grossly unfair manner? That's so immoral."

We can answer Cathy's question. Loan sharks are late comers in the game of outrageous money-lending. Guess who invented the outrageous interest rate? Let's hear what Mark Twain says about the matter of usury [i.e. loaning out money at outrageous interest rates]:

"The Jew has his other side.........He has a reputation for various small forms of cheating, and for practicing oppressive usury, and for burning himself out to get the insurance, and arranging for cunning contracts which leave him an exit but lock the other man in, and for smart evasions which find him safe and comfortable just within the strict letter of the law, when court and jury know very well that he has violated the spirit of it." -- essay "Concerning the Jews" by Mark Twain [note that Twain pulls his punches, since even in that era Jews dominated many areas of America life]. More on Jewish usury Here.

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