we can but hope,
put an end to this world of finance based on usury. All projects funded not by people who want to get more money out than they put in, but by people who put money in because they actually want to see the thing happen.
(
Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 10 Jul 2012, 23:03,
Reply)
If banks don't do it, the mafia will just fill in the spot.
(
BrokenCoccyx doesn't mind if you grope on, Tue 10 Jul 2012, 23:16,
Reply)
Look I just want to buy my little girl a horse.
(
Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Wed 11 Jul 2012, 9:59,
Reply)
Usury (play /juri/[1]) is the practice making loans with excessive or abusive interest rates.[2][3] The term may be used in a moral sense — condemning taking advantage of others' misfortunes — or in a legal sense where interest rates may be regulated by law. Historically some cultures have regarded charging any interest for loans as sinful and some still do today.
Some of the earliest known condemnations of usury come from the Vedic texts of India. Similar condemnations are found in religious texts from Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (the term is riba in Arabic and ribbit in Hebrew).[4] At times many nations from ancient China to ancient Greece to ancient Rome have outlawed loans with any interest. Though the Roman Empire eventually allowed loans with carefully restricted interest rates, in medieval Europe, the Christian church banned the charging of interest at any rate (as well as charging a fee for the use of money, such as at a bureau de change).
The pivotal change in the English-speaking world seems to have come with the permission to charge interest on lent money[5]: particularly the 1545 act "An Act Against Usurie" (37 H.viii 9) of King Henry VIII of England (see book references).
(
Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Wed 11 Jul 2012, 11:19,
Reply)