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It was a great pleasure to read THE SCRIBE, issue 72. I see from this issue that interest-free lending is a matter close to Mr Naim Dangoor's heart.
I have been working on this matter for many years and I believe that interest-free linkage to the average wage or income is a practical way of lending, and is in the spirit of the Miswah: "If thou lend money to My people, even to the poor with thee, thou shalt not be to him as a creditor; neither shall ye lay upon him interest" [Exodus 22-24].
Interest-free loans linked to the published average wage would give an average yearly return of about 1.5% above the price index to the lender. Erosion of the lender's money is prevented, but there are risks.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Israel
Raphael B Yehezkel
Scribe: Thank you for your information on interest-free loans. Your solution, however, is cosmetic. You just try to get around the biblical ban on usury by various means. This is like Islamic banking. When a person deposits money with an Islamic bank, instead of receiving interest, he receives a share of the bank's profit. This is like curing the symptoms instead of curing the illness. My solution is more genuine, more radical. It goes to the root of money. Money must be issued in the name of the consumer, instead of in the name of the money lender.
If promissory money is issued by or in the name of the consumer, interest suddenly disappears. This is the real money, not commodity money. Where mankind went wrong was to treat paper money as commodity money. Promissory money was not possible at the time of Moses, so the Torah mentioned the problem but could not provide a solution at that time.Now we can have the solution.
You still talk about a lender and a creditor which is directly contravening the Miswah you quote.
I believe that the greatest danger in the world is not the atom bomb, not global warming, but compound interest.
For a full explanation of Mr Yehezkel's ideas please refer to his home page: http://shekel.jct.ac.il/~rafi
If you would like to make any comments or contribute to the scribe please contact us.