Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.970113204416.13957C-100000@fox.ksu.ksu.edu> Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 20:49:33 -0600 From: kerry miller <mailto:astingsh@KSU.EDU> Subject: Re: Developing Countries' Options -Reply To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Jonathan, > As far as the transfer of resources issue is concerned, you're always going to
> see debtors pay creditors more than they received. This is what interest
> does. The Roman Catholic church called this usury and once it was a mortal
> sin. But not since the Middle Ages, I believe.
Arab banks, holding to Islamic principles, charge no interest. (I can't say Im surprised that we don't hear much about them in the USA.)
> The only way one sees a
> permanent and continual net transfer of resources from creditor to debtor is
> either (a) default by the debtor or (b) continuous lending by the creditor greater
> each year than the amount of the repayments. Neither is a sustainable
> proposition over any meaningful period of time. One plays the creditor for a
> sucker. The other makes international finance a giant Ponzi scheme.
>
Ponzi was a capitalist, I believe.kerry