Book Review - Popes and Bankers

For those like me wondering, "How did America get into its current financial mess?", Jack Cashill's book will go a long way to answering your question. This book takes a comprehensive look at debt and society's dealings with it - starting with Aristotle and ending with the housing crisis in America. Specifically, Cashill links society's acceptance (and American society's current dependence) on debt with its prevailing religious viewpoint.

In Biblical times Jewish society looked very unfavorably on going into debt and, in accordance with Mosaic law loaned money only to "strangers". Early Christians held a similar opinion of "usury" (then defined by most as the practice of loaning money to be repaid with interest). This opinion was based on a combination of Mosaic law and New Testament instruction. However, as our economy became more global and the handling of money became more sophisticated in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, new concepts of investment lending, speculating, others became accepted practice. The setting was finally perfect for consumer debt to become widely accepted in early 20th century America.

I especially found the final chapters on the creation and bursting of the housing bubble in America fascinating. I don't even begin to understand the economics behind what went on, but Jack Cashill makes an excellent attempt to explain it in terms the average American can grasp without "dumbing down" the explanation. The beginning of the book was a bit of a slow read for me, but overall this book is packed with fascinating information on the link between society's religious viewpoint and its acceptance of debt.

Americans today would do well to take to heart one piece of information from this book. First, in the form of a quote from Michael Novak: "How can a people govern a whole society that cannot, each of them, govern themselves?" - referring to a lack of ability of many to restrain themselves from spending more than they earn. And second, as Dave Ramsey puts it, "Live on less than you make."

I received a free copy of this book from Thomas Nelson publishers.