Popes and Bankers : A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, From Aristotle to AIG

AMIDST THE WRECKAGE OF FINANCIAL RUIN, PEOPLE ARE LEFT PUZZLING ABOUT HOW IT HAPPENED. WHERE DID ALL THE PROBLEMS BEGIN? For the answer, Jack Cashill, a journalist as shrewd as he is seasoned, looks past the headlines and deep into pages of history and comes back with the goods. From Plato to payday loans, from Aristotle to AIG, from Shakespeare to the Salomon Brothers, from the Medici to Bernie Madoff—in __Popes and Bankers__ Jack Cashill unfurls a fascinating story of credit and debt, usury and "the sordid love of gain." With a dizzying cast of characters, including church officials, gutter loan sharks, and even the Knights Templar, Cashill traces the creative tension between "pious restraint" and "economic ambition" through the annals of human history and illuminates both the dark corners of our past and the dusty corners of our billfolds.

For the answer, Jack Cashill, a journalist as shrewd as he is seasoned, looks past the headlines and deep into pages of history and comes back with the goods. From Plato to payday loans, from Aristotle to AIG, from Shakespeare to the Salomon Brothers, from the Medici to Bernie Madoff-in Popes and Bankers Jack Cashill unfurls a fascinating story of credit and debt, usury and "the sordid love of gain."

With a dizzying cast of characters, including church officials, gutter loan sharks, and even the Knights Templar, Cashill traces the creative tension between "pious restraint" and "economic ambition" through the annals of human history and illuminates both the dark corners of our past and the dusty corners of our billfolds.

The seventh circle Unto a stranger Hoping for nothing again Master of those who know Prepared for the crown Aboveboard The rules of equity I stand here for law Prodigals and projectors Tulips Bubbles The family business The socialism of fools The country of religiosity Time is money Jackson days A mountain load of debt Cross of gold Wizard of finance Jekyll Island Birth of the consumer Expelling the money changers Holy land The market's fools Membership has its privileges The greed decade Age of innocence Babel House on fire Restoration. Traces the history of credit and debt from antiquity to the early twenty-first century, examining how money- lending became common despite ancient secular beliefs that it is a sin, and assessing that the financial woes of the early twenty-first century are the fault of borrowers, not lenders