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Von Hügel Institute

for Critical Catholic Inquiry
 

A public talk by Dr Mark Hayes, St Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice, Durham University

 

This paper draws upon the work of Keynes to argue that the traditional view of usury (understood as the charging of rent for the use of money) as anti-social is well-founded. Keynes’s understanding of the nature of probability allows a clear distinction to be made between debt and equity finance which most economists dismiss. Rather than meriting remuneration, the demand for the security provided by money against an uncertain future imposes a social cost in one form or another. This proposition is illustrated with reference to the problems of the modern international financial and monetary system, specifically the role of deposit insurance and the obstacles to a renewed system of managed exchange rates.

Dr M. G. (Mark) Hayes is the Inaugural Holder of the St Hilda Chair in Catholic Social Thought and Practice in The Centre for Catholic Studies at Durham University. He was until recently Fellow and Director of Studies in Economics at Robinson College, Cambridge, and remains an Affiliated Lecturer in the Faculty of Economics.

Dr Hayes presentation is available online.

Date: 
Tuesday, 11 November, 2014 - 17:00 to 18:30
Event location: 
St Edmund's College, Garden Room

 

 

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