The Political Economy and Ethics of Debt Financing : The Brutality of the Charging of Interest on Loans

This book takes a fresh look at an age-old controversy in ethics and political economy that stretches right back to Aristotle: the morality and the economics of debt financing, or the charging of interest on loans.It endeavours to show the immense relevance of those ancient debates in the contemporary economy. Outside of countries which practise Islam and Islamic finance, the charging of interest is taken completely for granted today and little or no thought is devoted to its morality or economic and social impacts.This book argues that in fact the question of the morality of charging interest is still debatable and deserves to be considered anew in the 21st century for the light it can shine on certain salient contemporary sources of economic malaise.This book will first of all review the ancient debates on these questions stretching back to Aristotle seeking to restate the concerns in terms of contemporary economic theories and realities.It will also then delve into the current pract