Credit Crunch 2450 years ago

It is often said that there is nothing new under the sun. I was intrigued to notice an event recorded in the Bible very similar to today's financial crisis. It is also interesting what they did about it.

The story can be tread in Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah was a pretty single minded person focused sharply on the task in hand (rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem). It seemed that nothing could distract him. He had enemies who wanted him to fail. They tried threats, slander, and all manner of things but Nehemiah would not be distracted. That is until he heard about a financial crisis that was hurting some people acutely.

Because of a food shortage prices were ridiculously high as people sought to profit out of this opportunity. Consequently as ready cash ran out people had no alternative than to mortgage their homes and any land they had. But that only increased the debts and on top of that there were taxes that had to be paid to the Persian Empire at that time. But there were people then willing to lend money to people already saddled with debt. But interest rates charged by those exploiting the needy were disturbing, and the debt spiral just got worse. The only remaining remedy was to sell members of the family into a form of slavery in lieu of repayments and just to make ends meet.

It all sounds strangely familiar with recent events where countries have run on a debt economy and banks have sold "solutions" to the poor that only exacerbated the problems. How did Nehemiah deal with this?

Firstly he made dealing with the injustice and delivering people from the poverty trap his number one target.

Secondly, he addressed those who were exploiting the situation to satisfy their own greed, and so he put a stop to it.

Thirdly, he cancelled his own "bonus" entitlement. This was also a fiscal strategy that would have lightened the taxation burden.

The he ensured that people could be fed by opening up his own home each day ton 150 people and ensuring that they could have a decent meal. In other words he set a personal example of generosity.

It is sure that the global financial problems are unlikely to be solved without the adoption of similar renunciation of greed, the condemnation of those who exploit, and the exercise of generosity. The fact that the problem has become global just emphasises that the price of greed is the impoverishing of others, and that what goes around comes around.