Re: Lehman Brothers

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:54:47 +0000 (UTC), micha@xxxxxxxxxxx (Micha
Berger) said:

[snip]

As for a Jewish perspective, let me quote R' Chaim Brown
<http://divreichaim.blogspot.com/2008/09/credit-crunch.html>:
Sometimes a ma'aseh turns out so badly that it seems only Divine
intervention can explain what happened. When you consider a 158 year
old company (Lehman Bros.) drive to bankrupcy in the course of weeks,
insurance giants (AIG) reduced to nothing, banks one after the other
on the verge of failure, one is faced with either assuming the best
minds in business simultaneously have all been overtaken by a bout of
very contagious stupid disease, or someone up there is pulling the
strings in ways that are just out of everyone's control.

R' Elchanan in one of his ma'amarim, which if I recall correctly has no
date attached but must have been written in the '30s, writes that the
failing of the economy (at the time of his writing) was not caused by a
lack of money, as plenty of people still had fortunes and great wealth.
The economy failed because of a loss of confidence in the institutions
of finance - a loss of faith in the economic system. What was true then
is certainly true today, as the credit crunch is primarily a loss of
confidence and trust. The key to understanding this phenomenon is the
principle of middah k'neged middah. R' Elchahan writes that a loss of
faith in worldly institutions comes about because of the greater loss of
faith in our spiritual institutions - a failing of emunah. And only
through the strengthening of emunah can we find the tools to emerge from
such a crisis.

I understand about midda k'neged midda (I think), but still - what an
extraordinary thing to say! To link faith in spiritual institutions to
confidence in banking ones... well, it strikes this observant Jewish
CPA as very odd.

Yisroel "Godwrestler Warriorson" Markov - Boston, MA Member
www.reason.com -- for unbiased analysis of the world DNRC
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