During the global financial crisis, as economies were dragged down by debt built up in more euphoric times, it struck me that the great religious traditions had understood something about debt that modern economic and financial theories did not.
Behind the packaging, slicing, dicing and repackaging of mortgages were intricate mathematical models that purportedly calculated the risks of non-payment. The idea was to place these risks with those willing to bear them at the right price. In practice these models didn’t do that—but even if they had, they would still have missed a bigger point.