Religions condemning charging interest for money have no clue of maths. This mathematical fact alone shows, even proves, that these religions cannot come from an all-knowing God, but rather are some buggy inventions by some self-declared "prophets"... Q.E.D.! See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest#In_religious_contexts Or do the religions mean usury and/or compound interest, but not the basic interest itself, maybe? (Mod, please leave this thread here in the Economics forum, b/c it's about economics as also this wiki page clearly shows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interest#Economics )
Interest (what bonds do) is is merely the cost of renting money. It's no different from renting a house, a car, a boat, or a chainsaw. People who are under the age of 21 cannot buy securities, or engage in a large group of legal activities (e.g. act as executor in a will). Over 21 years of is the world of adults. People who complain about high rates on a loan (Usury) usually ignore the fact that interest rates were disclosed to the borrower before the loan was made. If the borrower can not meet his/her responsibilities of the loan contract, that person should not be considered as an adult. And that person should be restricted from all adult activities, such as voting. End of problem.
the defense and or justification of high interest rates sounds like an elite of some sort maybe a rothschild but we poor people like very low interest rates. be interesting to take a poll and see ho many people like higher interest rates so don't be surprised when i scoff and dismiss your comment as pretty crazy. i have often lent money to relatives with no interest and right now freddy yates in texas ,still owes me 40k from a decade ago. if he were to pay me tomorrow he would still just owe me 40k. but i'm an extremely nice non predatory lender.
Interest free loans do not make any business sense, however they make sense for individuals like MarkBrown states. Even the Bible speaks of Debt Jubilees after a certain time has elapsed. Governments do that all the time.
The U.S. currently has $34.5 Trillion in direct debt, which is higher than 120% debt to GDP ratio. As with all sovereigns who have slid into such a derelict situation, the U.S. has two choices: 1) default on the debt 2) actively embark on a monetary program to devalue the fiat, pay the debt back with devalued dollars (aka inflation). In either case, the result is less than optimal for all parties involved. Debt Jubilee is somewhere between 1 & 2. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" ... Shakespeare
Ugh, I never LEND money to relatives. If somebody needs money for a good reason, I just give it to them (mindful of IRS 709 regs)
Fine. Used to be 21 before this wholesale insanity started. And some people want it lowered to 16. But the point of being "emotionally mature" at some age (or never) is still valid.