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Popes and Bankers: A Cultural History of Credit and Debt, from Aristotle to AIG

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AMIDST THE WRECKAGE OF FINANCIAL RUIN, PEOPLE ARE LEFT PUZZLING ABOUT HOW IT HAPPENED. WHERE DID ALL THE PROBLEMS BEGIN? For the answer, Jack Cashill, a journalist as shrewd as he is seasoned, looks past the headlines and deep into pages of history and comes back with the goods. From Plato to payday loans, from Aristotle to AIG, from Shakespeare to the Salomon Brothers, from the Medici to Bernie Madoff―in Popes and Bankers Jack Cashill unfurls a fascinating story of credit and debt, usury and “the sordid love of gain.” With a dizzying cast of characters, including church officials, gutter loan sharks, and even the Knights Templar, Cashill traces the creative tension between “pious restraint” and “economic ambition” through the annals of human history and illuminates both the dark corners of our past and the dusty corners of our billfolds.

272 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2010

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Jack Cashill

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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
Profile Image for Jeffrey.
157 reviews3 followers
April 17, 2011
Jack Cashill must surely be the finest peddler of plain-folk history in contemporary America. Like itinerant salesmen of generations past, in Popes and Bankers he meanders through the depths of Western cultural history seeking to sell a story of contemporary “moral cultural” decline; one that, he says, has brought the entire capitalist enterprise perilously close to insolvency. While his focus on the leading thinkers of the past two and a half millennia and their positions on usury is admirable, especially for an author whose best-selling work to date is a screed on how modern day intellectuals have perpetrated collective fraud against common sense*, the history he has for sale here is about as creditworthy as a Countrywide adjustable rate mortgage vintage 2004.

Cashill starts from a single premise: religious values are indispensible in capitalist economies. Because rational decision making alone does not ensure moral outcomes, he finds it worthwhile to probe the sectarian nature of the agents responsible for lending, which is itself the basis for a modern capitalist economy. What results is a book oddly preoccupied with Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant financiers and the confessional nature of the contemporary American banking establishment. One interesting chapter, for instance, illuminates the role that the Knights Templar played in the formation of an early international savings and loan network for kings and princes seeking fame, adventure, treasure, and salvation in the twelfth and thirteenth century Levant. Not satisfied with simply expounding upon the financial innovations of the Christian warrior monks, Cashill also informs that the Crusaders themselves were simply trying “to right undeniable wrongs.” What’s more, he justifies, “if giving alms to the poor was thought to be an investment in one’s heavenly reward, fighting a crusade was a leveraged buyout of the same.”

If such metaphysical absurdities weren’t enough, readers can take heart that Cashill feels as comfortable with revisionism as did the two men who would crack the hegemony of the Catholic Church in sixteenth century Europe. Several hundred years after the collapse of medieval monastic finance, the corrupt papal establishment, in concert with the Medici’s of Florence dominated the world of Western finance. John Calvin and Martin Luther both led popular revolts against that establishment but only the former encouraged more tolerant thinking on the subject of usury. For the Calvinists, lending at interest was simply a matter of equity, not something that need be determined by scripture. Their early embrace of this modern capitalist sensibility provides some context to the improbable seventeenth century Dutch tulip bubble. The Lutherans, by contrast, fare less well in Cashill’s accounting. In fact, he traces a direct lineage between the early popes, who were able to transcend their anti-usury fanaticism, the Lutherans, who weren’t, and the latter day followers of another “messianic German,” Karl Marx. Marx, whose father converted from Judaism to Lutheranism, comes in for particular scorn from Cashill when he notes that Das Kapital “reads like the stage direction for Shylock in a Third Reich production of The Merchant of Venice.”

In a subsequent chapter Cashill sets out to debunk the myth that 1980s was a decade of greed led by the titans of Wall Street. The story of junk bonds, ostentatious wealth, and insider trading was, he says, largely a function of a Wall Street that was “no longer Jewish enough.” Though Ivan Boesky, Dennis Levine, and Michael Milken, just three of the most prominent of those who would serve prison time for their role in the decade’s financial scandals, were all of Jewish heritage, none came from the pedigreed families who had produced the likes of the Rothschilds, the Warburgs, or the Lehmans. Cashill implies that because their fathers owned topless bars, traded in scrap metal, and raised their families in the San Fernando Valley, that there is something suspect about their religio-ethnic ties. That it would be Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic Italian from Brooklyn with a Jesuitical worldview, which would bring the young Turks to justice seems to Cashill to be an instance of divine justice itself. As for Bernie Madoff whose fraud started that same decade, “he was arguably less greedy in the 1980s than he was in the 1990s.” According to Cashill, Madoff was just Jewish enough to effectively use “tribal loyalties” to swindle other well-to-do Jewish investors. He notes, shockingly, of the fallout from Madoff’s fraud that “one does not have to be an anti-Semite to enjoy it.”

Popes and Bankers is littered with exactly such gratuitous demagoguery, both sectarian and political. From the enlightenment to the environment, Cashill’s partisan political asides leave nothing possibly associated with the leftist elite untouched. He rails against academic attempts to read homosexual intent into “just about every character in world literature.” He assails the prodigal Thomas Jefferson and extols the virtuous Andrew Jackson, claiming that he was tough on corruption and a champion of small government. (On Jackson, we also learn that “God cannot possibly allow the dead to spy on their living descendents, because if, by some miracle, Jackson got to heaven, watching the TARP rollout in 2008 would have been pure hell.”) With respect to immigrants, Cashill pulls no punches. He finds it incredulous to think that some illegal immigrants might have had the chance to purchase homes, while “many of the legal immigrants were unable to read the [loan] documents.” His contempt for single women is particularly striking, especially for those that might have children, be divorced, or be of a racial or ethnic minority. Why such women might ever contemplate home ownership is beyond the logical imagination of Cashill.

Provided that you are aware of his incendiary political stripes from the outset, reading past such irrational chutzpah may be possible, but getting to the bottom of Cashill’s muddled arguments is a much more elusive task. It’s clear that he sees the erosion of religious values as being responsible for the breakdown of the family, the unit he believes most responsible for assuring economic welfare in our society. That is a moral argument that has been and will continue to be debated among liberals and conservatives, the religious and the secular in American society. What are less clear are the cultural arguments he holds responsible; namely, a “widespread embrace” of credit, the media’s willingness to portray irresponsible individuals as victims, a civil rights movement whose advocacy distorts markets, and finally the failure of the legal establishment to execute and enforce proper contracts with respect to mortgage issuances. On each count, his evidence is thin, polemical, and very often cuts against the larger narrative threads of his book. His predisposition is to condemn corrupt governance and prodigal consumers while painting Wall Street as a victim, but he never convincingly escapes the orbit of corporate culpability.

As any canny salesman understands, redemption is among the most intoxicating of sales pitches. Fittingly the last chapter of Popes and Bankers, aptly titled “Restoration”, is set aside for a modern day evangelist. Dave Ramsey is a former real estate speculator with a down home southern drawl who made and then lost millions. Now this once fallen evangelist is selling a “Total Money Makeover” to an audience who also has endured its own crisis. With a healthy dose of nostalgia (“my great-grandparents thought debt was sin”) and the same quintessentially American optimism that de Tocqueville wrote of 180 years earlier, Ramsey preaches a gospel of debt management to the denim-clad masses. Cashill cleverly understands that such rehabilitation might be equally applied metaphorically to the entire capitalist enterprise that he says has been so threatened by moral cultural decline. His message that redemption is possible, while uplifting, serves to obscure the numerous short comings of the analytical arguments made in this book. His polemicized populist history of credit and debt may appeal to some plain-folk partisans, but should in no way be confused with a serious treatment of a worthy cultural subject of study. © Jeffrey L. Otto April 17, 2011

* Hoodwinked: How intellectual hucksters have hijacked American culture. Cashill, Jack. 2005.
Profile Image for Cole Stratton.
15 reviews20 followers
June 14, 2012
As a cultural history of credit and debt, Cashill's book is impressive in scope, but suffers from the brevity with which he treats his historical subjects as he blasts through history in short chapters. There's no real critical engagement with quoted authors; instead Cashill colors the surface of his historical narrative with his own ideological brush, in a light, meandering prose. His failure to really engage the material he presents in any meaningful way is disappointing. The overarching narrative he constructs tends to be dominated by his interest in the roll Jews played in the history of credit and debt – how they've succeeded, been persecuted, yet still dominate finance. It seems a very personal book with a somewhat narrow focus on history. Although Cashill does find a few interesting historical tidbits to sprinkle throughout his otherwise bland book.
6 reviews1 follower
March 16, 2013
Absolutely useless compilation of fluffy BS that support author's biased opinion. For a serious treatment of the issue, actual facts and much more you need to refer to "A History of Interest Rates" by Homer/Sylla.
Profile Image for Robert Jerome.
60 reviews1 follower
March 26, 2023
A terrible failure of a book. The author basically searches for the word "usury" in a few classic works and repeats what the author thought. He throws in a few zinger arguments including that Christ was certainly in favor of a free market because he was a small business owner and that the 14th century catholic church was a place of freer debate than the modern American University. The book opens with a straw man argument made by an average joe he saw on TV who lost their house and was angry at the bank.

If you are actually interested in the history of credit and debit, reach for "Debt: the first 5000 years" by David Graeber.
Profile Image for Adam Chambers.
12 reviews
April 7, 2019
If you like debt you probably won’t like this book. However if you have ever wondered how the world became so debt obsessed then this book well worth a read. Fascinating and sobering!
202 reviews50 followers
January 11, 2024
I am giving it two stars for intention alone. Unfortunately, some subjects are too important to be treated with brevity.
Profile Image for dvd.
30 reviews1 follower
May 5, 2010
This review may also be found at www.thispilgrimland.com

“Is it possible that monks and other Judeo-Christian moralists were useful, maybe even essential to the creation of this [the thriving Western:] economy? If so, then is it possible that their dismissal from the marketplace has condemned us to our current economic purgatory?” That is the thesis that Jack Cashill lays out and attempts to answer in his latest book Popes & Bankers: A Cultrual History of Credit & Debt, From Aristotle to AIG. Taking the reader through the history of what was once known as usury but is now called credit, Cashill lays out for the reader a concise story of the development of the credit system that leads to today’s conversation about predatory lenders. Measuring the historical evidence and documents at the time and often measuring that against the churches response to banking trends in history Cashille presents the reader with a very educational and at times entertaining, stroll through the history of usury.

I enjoyed this book much more that I thought I would. I had thoughts that this book would read like an IRS tax-form but was pleasantly surprised to find that Cashill had expertly crafted a book that allows history to talk for the reader. The book is an easy read and provides more of an insight into cultural response to rules and trends in banking than the actual rules and trends themselves. Perhaps my favorite aspect of this book was the fact that Cashill drew so much of his thought not from “experts” on the time period but, especially in the earlier parts of the book, from the actual literature and poetry from the time. Cashill presents the reader with the reaction of culture to the trends and the trend setters from the works written at that time. This, for this reader, added credence to Cashill’s work.

I believe that people should read this book. Cashill presents thoughts and history on a subject, usury, that has baffled mankind since currency was invented. Is it alright in the eyes of God to lend money expecting repayment with interest? I can’t say that this book necessarily answers that question but it will make the reader more prepared to develop his or her own answer.
Profile Image for Elizabeth.
1,000 reviews15 followers
May 20, 2010
If you are interested in finance and economics, history and Christian thought, then this book is for you. As I read the TIME magazine pretty much cover to cover, I skip the financial section (even though I was a business major). But Caleb is really interested in it so I decided to get this book through BookSneeze (a great way to get free books when you review them on your blog from Thomas Nelson publishing).
The subtitle of A Cultural History on Credit and Debt from Aristotle to AIG could have replaced those with Moses to Dennis Ramsey. The title isn’t openly religious but in the introduction it is clear where Jack Cashill is writing from and he leaves no doubt to his opinions on matters either. The first chapter tells how term usury was used in the past (I do it as I have received interest in a savings account and pay it in our mortgage). The beginning historical chapters were fascinating to me. He uses the KJV of the Bible for his prophet and Jesus chapters (which fit the feel). It began to drag for me personally once we got into European banking systems. New thoughts; Jewish and Italian importance in developing modern economies and moral problems in our current crisis.
Overall the writing is insightful and sometime humorous. My favorite paragraph: “In reading Calvin and Luther, one cannot help but be impressed by their super-sized certitude…church fathers…moved forward but always probingly, with continual backward glances at the wise men who preceded them…For Calvin and Luther, it was pedal o the metal, with no looking back until they got to Jesus.”
While his history is great, his call to act is lacking.
Profile Image for Jeremy West.
131 reviews122 followers
May 3, 2010
“From Plato to payday loans, from Aristotle to AIG, from Shakespeare to the Salomon Brothers, from the Medici to Bernie Madoff,” this book goes deep into the history of credit and debt to uncover secrets hidden in time. Jack Cashill delves under the surface of secrecy and mystery to discover an entire realm of people and place unknown to the common man. The realm of bankers is typically a confidential business that deals with money some, but mostly with corruption, laundering, theft, lying, cheating, and worse. He explains some otherwise confusing terms such as creditor, usury, et cetera. He tells the cultural history of everything money from the Middle Age to the Modern Era and from Dante’s Inferno to the IRS. Upon first receiving this book, I was really taken back by the fact that this book was completely out of my normal playing field of reading but I began reading it anyway. At first glance, I thought “Oh boy, this one could be a doozy…” but as I continued, it intrigued me to learn the history behind what we know as credit and debt. This is truly a great book on finances and social history. I would recommend it to any person dealing with finances (which would be every family) and also history, accounting, and any other secondary educators.
Profile Image for Dawn.
274 reviews3 followers
February 10, 2018
The history of debt doesn’t sound like very interesting reading to anyone but those mystical few who have enough capital to make make more capital by lending to the rest of us. The author of this book attempts to forge ahead and tackle the subject anyway, exploring personalities, emotions, and events surrounding “usury” from Bible times up to the present. Although currency exchange is a global activity, the focus of this book is more of a Middle East to Europe to North America overview. Although not confined to these types of people, the folks who seem inclined towards making money off the interest others pay when borrowing, are Jews and Italians. The writer points out the ingratitude often expressed toward the Jewish race throughout the last millennium.
In addition to learning about debt, readers also learn about the flip-side of the same coin, putting money in the market to earn interest. The last chapter brings an abrupt end to the book as it references the work of American Dave Ramsey to help ordinary people make the change from being debtors to being wealth builders and generous givers instead.
There are lots of footnotes and links to sources throughout the book.
Profile Image for Maisie Han.
61 reviews17 followers
January 28, 2014
From the religious pulpits to the plush offices of Wall Street, the author takes us on tour of how the (western?) financial world came to be. Filled with a veritable list of key players who have come to define the history of finance, I would say that this was a good starter book me to wet my toes in a sea of financial terminology. If the first few chapters describing usury left me a little uneasy about how most of us make a living these days, the last few chapters about the 2008 economic meltdown certainly scared me silly because it seemed like no one really knew what they are doing.
379 reviews3 followers
December 15, 2011
Enjoyed this more than I should have probably. I enjoy history and this really touched on a broad range of historical subjects. I learned about topics such as the Medici family that I had barely heard of. A very enjoyable, historical document. Came the closest of anything I've read to explaining the housing crisis and how it all evolved without getting too technical or watering it down too much.
Profile Image for Paul Burkhart.
119 reviews5 followers
July 19, 2010
Great book. A great historical account of credit and finance. The author is obviously biased, but in that refreshing "I'm not going to try and hide my bias form you"-sort of way. More fuller review will be on my blog in the next day or two.
Profile Image for Fredrick Danysh.
6,844 reviews195 followers
April 18, 2015
Popes & Bankers is an attempt to document banking throughout the ages. The author is fond of using big words and seems to take joy in lambasting the Catholic Church and the Knights Templars downplaying the role of other groups.
Profile Image for Brad Pruitt.
48 reviews
September 3, 2012
A rich historical tour de force of credit, banking, and the stupid decisions people make and have made. Well written by a seasoned journalist.
Profile Image for Terri.
888 reviews6 followers
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November 17, 2015
Everyone had some responsibility in the recession. By degrees.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews