From: gordonb.gp8b8@burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)
Newsgroups: alt.consumers misc.consumers.house misc.consumers uk.people.consumers
Subject: Re: King Billy's Crime: A Short History of Banking
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 00:32:57 -0000
Originator: gordon@hammy.burditt.org (Gordon Burditt)

>In the old days there was no paper money. The accepted token of
>exchange was precious metal minted into coins by the Church and the
>Crown. Because there was only a limited amount of gold and silver
>available, the economic life of the nation had a certain regularity.
>
>An even greater restriction existed throughout Christendom. This was
>the prohibition against usury, or charging interest. The Church held it
>to be a grave sin and the code was upheld by the civil powers. There
>were harsh penalties for those who broke the law.
>
>The regulation of usury was to prevent the separation of money from
>reality. Money is not a good, it is a measure. It is fraud to pretend
>otherwise, and constitutes theft. Usury is making money from lending
>money; it is making money from nothing. This is exactly what is
>happening today on a colossal scale.

Lending money is NOT "making money from nothing".  An informed
borrower is willing to pay the interest and may find it enormously
to his financial advantage to borrow (e.g. loans for a house or a
college education).  A lender should be compensated for his risk
in possibly not getting paid back, and the opportunity cost of not
being able to use it for something else profitable.  It can be a
win-win deal.

Fractional-reserve banking and government deficit spending are
arguably "creating money from nothing".  But anyone who doesn't
know about fractional-reserve banking nowadays simply isn't paying
attention.  It's not a secret and I learned about it in Social
Studies class.