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Monday, April 10, 2006

The Exchange of Money

The Levitical codes are pretty clear that usury is a crime. That is, the exchange of one form of currency for another for profit, (and by extension all profit associated with banking, etc.) is forbidden. Of course Leviticus was referring to the exchange of Roman coins for Temple coins that were the only acceptable form of money for the purchase of sacrificial animals for the Temple.

I am thinking that this bit of Leviticus is not so bad.

Today, I paid my tuition bill for Oxford. 3536 GBP = 6140 USD. It cost me 35 USD just to make the bank transfer, and I am sure that Barclays Bank in the UK made some money on this exchange as well. I don't mind paying fairly for things like food and books and education, but I can't help feeling like an economic exchange rate this poor is not so much fun.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, the banks also make money when you do something as mundane as changing money for travel. Yeah, sure, there's a published exchnage rate, but you can be sure there's something in it for every institution involved!

Are those batteries charged yet? We want more cat pics before you skip the country!

-alan in belmont

James J. Olson said...

Alan:

If the cats were doing something more interesting than sleeping, I might consider posting more cat blogging. I'll keep the camera close for the next few days.