Hurling brickbats at bankers is a popular pastime. The "Occupy Wall Street" movement and its various offshoots complain that a malign 1%, many of them bankers, are ripping off the virtuous 99%. Hollywood has vilified financiers in "Wall Street", "Wall Street 2", "Too Big to Fail" and "Margin Call". Mountains of books make the same point without using Michael Douglas. Anger is understandable. The financial crisis of 2007-08 has produced the deepest recession since the 1930s. Most of the finaniers at the heart of it have got off scot-free. The biggest banks are bigger than ever. Bonuses are flowing once again. The old saw about bankers-that they believe in capitalism when it comes to pocketing the profits and socialism when it comes to paying for the losses-is too true for comfort. But is the backlash in danger of going too far? Could fair criticism warp into ugly prejudice? And could ugly prejudice produce prosperity-destroying policies? A glance at history suggests that we should be nervous. Scorn for moneymen has a long pedigree. Jesus expelled the moneychangers from the Temple. Timothy tells us that "the love of money is the root of all evil." Muhammad banned usury. The Jews referred to interest as neshek-a bite. The Catholic church banned it in 1311. Dante consigned moneylenders to the seventh circle of hell-the one also populated by the inhabitants of Sodom and "other practisers of unnatural vice".
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