Category Archives: Justice

What The Torah & Talmud Teach About Moral Hazard (Bailouts)

Free Markets, Hebrew Testament, Judaism & Jews, Justice

In “Jews Against Judaism,” I highlighted The Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies’ efforts to educate about Judaism’s philosophical affinity with the free market.

Now JIMS, with which I am affiliated, has inaugurated the Center for the Study of Judaism and Economics.

Delivering the inaugural lecture was Nobel laureate economist Professor Robert (Yisrael) Aumann. Professor Aumann addressed the role ascribed to economic incentives in the Torah and Talmud—for example, “unfettered price competition” and the imprimatur to collect on loans.

Professor Aumann also talked about the many discussions of the moral hazard problem in the Torah and Talmud, and how moral hazard is currently at the heart of the faulty proposals currently being offered to solve the current financial crisis. The term moral hazard is used by economists to describe the fact that when an individual, a firm or an institution is “insured”, there is an incentive to act less carefully and take harmful risks.

This should not surprise anyone who appreciates the centrality of justice in the Jewish tradition. What are economic laws if not natural laws? And what is the natural law if not immutable and just? It follows from this that to adhere to the economic laws of nature is to be faithful to truth and justice.

“Justice, justice shall you pursue.” (Devarim 16:20)

What The Torah & Talmud Teach About Moral Hazard (Bailouts)

Economy, Free Markets, Hebrew Testament, Judaism & Jews, Justice

In “Jews Against Judaism,” I highlighted The Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies’ efforts to educate about Judaism’s philosophical affinity with the free market.

Now JIMS, with which I am affiliated, has inaugurated the Center for the Study of Judaism and Economics.

Professor Aumann also talked about the many discussions of the moral hazard problem in the Torah and Talmud, and how moral hazard is currently at the heart of the faulty proposals currently being offered to solve the current financial crisis. The term moral hazard is used by economists to describe the fact that when an individual, a firm or an institution is “insured”, there is an incentive to act less carefully and take harmful risks.

“Justice, justice shall you pursue.” (Devarim 16:20)

Crappy Kennedy Reminder

Democrats, Family, Justice, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Morality

Yesterday, on the phone to my father in South Africa, he reminded me of who Ted Kennedy REALLY was:

“A man who left a young girl to drown”:

“On the evening of July 19, 1969, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts drove his Oldsmobile off a wooden bridge on Chappaquiddick Island, drowning his passenger, a young campaign worker named Mary Jo Kopechne. The senator left the scene of the accident, did not report it to the police for many hours, and according to some accounts considered concocting an alibi for himself in the interim. … At the time, Kennedy managed to escape severe legal and political consequences for his actions thanks to his family’s connections…”

Amidst the latest genuflection to TK, Americans and the mindless media would do well to reflect on this man’s defining act. Dad thinks the Kennedy clan is rotten to the core.

My father has been a big influence; he’d always remind that justice was the most frequently occurring word in the Hebrew Bible. When Waco happened, dad was outraged. “They—the government—murdered those people in cold blood,” he fumed. It’s an immutably true insight that has eludes too many Americans. Needless to say that we did not debate, but only touched on, the kidnapping by Texas authorities of 450 FLDS kids—it was implicit and obvious dad would be appalled by that act of tyranny. And he was.

What’s more remarkable is that dad has always been left-leaning. Although I would not call him a left-liberal, he’s certainly not quite the classical liberal, as he seems to believe state interventions outside the remits of classical liberalism can be a good thing.

Still, my father’s sense of justice is really quite extraordinary, always has been. It doesn’t matter who commits injustice, he will speak truth to power, a trait that has been as helpful to his career as it has to mine.

Always an original thinker, Dad had this to say about the banal Obama: “He reminds me of a community organizer.”

Another of his funny lines that stuck with me from last night’s call: In the wake of these assaults, “a few thousand people had fled South Africa to the safe haven of Zimbabwe.”

Update 3: State Had No Right To Seize FLDS Children!

Criminal Injustice, Family, Justice, Law, The State

I said so in my April 15 column, “They’re Coming For Your Kids.” At the same time, my good friend and colleague, the heroic attorney and broadcaster Jerri Ward, rushed to defend an FLDS father pro bono. Now the Third Court of Appeals in Austin agrees.

Did the malpracticing, mindless media that never swims upstream ever interview Jerri or myself when we said what ought to have been plain to any clear-thinking, liberty loving individual? Of course not. Nancy Grace, Bill O’Reilly and the rest were busy fulfilling “their providential purpose” in this case, evangelizing for state overreach.

We will be talking today, at 12:42 Pacific Time, about the case vis-à-vis these new developments. I am a regular, fortnightly commentator on Jerri’s marvelous “I Object!” show. Be sure to follow our schedule here.

Update 3 (May 24): We covered the issues on the blog after the publication of “They’re Coming For Your Kids,” which in itself pretty much said it all. Trace the discussion here. Nothing has been added to the debate since the column, other than a couple of legal technicalities, such as that the Abduction Department treated the compound as one family, instead of investigating individual cases. The assigning of collective guilt–tribal justice–bears no resemblance to the law as the Rights of Englishmen would have it.

This is both sickening and retarded. I covered it; re-read the post. We’re not rehashing the same thing over again, especially in light of the general reluctance, because chronically incurious, among posters to read all background material on the Mother site: Barely A Blog is a companion to the main site, IlanaMercer.com. What has changed is that a month hence, the Court has agreed with us. However, even if the Appeals Court had not agreed with us, we’d still be right. Natural justice is immutably true.