Ann also makes the point that anytime somebody starts talking about the evils of interest, it’s really just code for anti-Semitism.
And Hilaire Belloc (along with his fellow distributist Chesterton) was certainly an anti-Semite.
The Bible does seem to ban interest. There are a whole series of rules about this, and although they could be said to be no longer operative if one does not follow the Old Testament, they do suggest it is a problem - a matter for regulation.
The Biblical requirement that all debts be cancelled after 7 years is most interesting.
This rule prevents a situation where inequality keeps increasing and increasing, and feeding upon itself. The problem of chronic indebtedness was also faced in the Ancient Greek societies, which tried to arrange debt cancellation.
In our societies, I would say that inflation take the place of the 7 year exemption. After a while, inflation eats away at debt, melts it.
That's a good point. The Jews began to prosper at the tail end of the Middle Ages because of Christianity's mistaken belief that interest was evil.
Interest is nothing but the difference in the preference to consume today or to consume sometime in the future.
.. and racism, and homophobia, and fattening school lunches.