In medieval Latin, the term usuria was used interchangeably for interest and excessive interest, much like the Arabic word riba is used today.
To be sure, from the Bible to Buddhism, most of the world's faiths have issued warnings against usury, and theologians through the ages have debated the line between permissible and excessive interest rates.
There was a great deal of controversy in the Islamic world on this issue as recently as the 1980s, with some prominent Islamic scholars claiming that there was in fact no complete prohibition of interest, only a prohibition of usury, or excessive, unfair interest.
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Leung said the factors driving the market are excessive liquidity, low interest rates and a weak U.S. dollar.
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Most are rife with conflicts of interest, excessive fees, poor-performing investment options and other deficiencies that, unfortunately, are difficult for employees to ferret-out.
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It thought the U.S. economy was much weaker than it was and therefore pumped out excessive liquidity and kept interest rates artificially low.
Today the focus is upon sponsors of defined contribution plans that have not diligently fulfilled their fiduciary duties regarding conflicts of interest, excessive costs, abusive practices and investment performance related to management of these plans.
When hard times come, central banks may be able to raise interest rates, prevent excessive currency volatility and stick to their inflation targets.
Actions such as selling credit default swaps based on rotten loans, money laundering, interest rate manipulation, and excessive risk-taking can be as objectively determined as financial restatements.
This morning, a day after Spitzer, the New York state attorney general, unveiled a 55-page lawsuit against the former chief of the New York Stock Exchange, charging him with deception, conflict of interest and the receipt of excessive pay, Grasso went public with his defense.
The financial crisis resulted from expansionary monetary policy and the resulting low interest rates, which led to excessive borrowing for investment in housing.
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Thus interest rates should be raised to curb excessive credit growth even if inflation remains tame.
Instead, Sirius was left in a position of having excessive debt and no cash with which to make interest payments.
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During World War II, again the Treasury pressured the Fed to put a lid on long-term interest rates, which again led to excessive money-printing by the Fed.
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For example, excessive debt and persistent unemployment may limit spending, raise interest rates and crimp growth.
Excessive debt makes it impossible to ever survive the rising interest costs you must pay once your debt becomes junk .
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The Federal Reserve will continue raising short-term interest rates, but unless it stops printing an excessive amount of money, it will give us a replay, although a milder version, of the dreadful stagnation experiences of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Excessive greed and risk-taking, aided and abetted by extreme low interest rates, and regulatory powers spread across too many entities to be effective, resulted in a housing bubble.
Instead they have called on shareholders to take a closer interest in executive pay - and to protest when executive rewards are deemed to be excessive.
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For example, following lengthy comment periods, in 2006, the federal banking supervisors issued formal guidance on underwriting and managing the risks of nontraditional mortgages, such as interest-only and negative amortization mortgages, as well as guidance warning banks against excessive concentrations in commercial real estate lending.
Interest rates can be lowered to zero and money can be printed ad nauseum, but if excessive debt within the system is restraining private demand, the decline in the velocity of money will offset the benefit of the additional supply of dollars.
Conflict of interest ridden financial advisers, unethical money managers and brokerage schemes are commonplace, as are irrational and excessive fees.
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What is absolutely fascinating is that if you dig a little deeper and look at the structural failures that are really holding back the Brazilian economy they are very (almost shockingly) similar to those that plague Russia: high taxes, insufficient investment, inefficient government spending, over-reliance on consumer spending, excessive government red-tape, unreliable courts, poor transport infrastructure, rent-seeking, persistent inflation, high interest rates, and (potential) de-industrialization.
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