The Money Lenders

This book challenges a common historical narrative, which portrays medieval Jews as moneylenders who filled an essential economic role in Europe. It traces how and why this narrative was constructed as a philosemitic narrative in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in response to the rise of political antisemitism. This book also documents why it is a myth for medieval Europe, and illuminates how changes in Jewish history change our understanding of European history. Each chapter offers a novel interpretation of central topics, such as the usury debate, commercial contracts, and moral literature on money and value to demonstrate how the revision of Jewish history leads to new insights in European history.

Finally! Everything you need to know to become a remarkably successful hard money lender in real estate—by an acknowledged leader in the field. Are you looking for a lucrative career in hard money lending in real estate? Are you fed up investing in overpriced stocks or working for someone else? Have you considered entering the real estate field but don’t want to be a landlord? Do you long for the financial rewards and independence that are the rewards of creating and managing your own successful real estate investment fund? Then the landmark new book, Making the Yield: Real Estate Hard Money Lending Uncovered, by Salvatore M. Buscemi is an absolute must read! In straightforward, inviting language, he tells you everything you need to know—from how to create the fund and attract qualified investors to how to select builders and others to lend to, choose sound investment properties, structure risk away from you and your investors, manage the fund, and time the closing of the fund to reap maximum profits for you and your investors. With the author’s expert step-by-step guidance, you’ll be able to establish your initial fund and begin to build a track record of success that will allow you to grow into the kind of confident, successful fund manager that investors search for and trust with their money.

"The Private Money Guide: Real Estate Edition" is a deep dive into the world of real estate lending and financing. The perfect book for both seasoned investors and individuals joining the real estate industry for the first time, this guide will teach you how to identify and secure private money lenders, the dos and don'ts of securing private funds for investment, and how to analyze deals provided by private money lenders. This guide will also cover in detail the various documents that you will need during the private money lending process and the steps to take from securing a private money lender, to leveraging your financing and increasing your real estate portfolio in a sustainable manner!

" ... collection of writings from some of the most determined fighters against usury and the Central Banking system during the 20th Century." -- Back cover.

This is a one-of-kind volume bringing together leading scholars in the economics of religion for the first time. The treatment of topics is interdisciplinary, comparative, as well as global in nature. Scholars apply the economics of religion approach to contemporary issues such as immigrants in the United States and ask historical questions such as why did Judaism as a religion promote investment in education? The economics of religion applies economic concepts (for example, supply and demand) and models of the market to the study of religion. Advocates of the economics of religion approach look at ways in which the religion market influences individual choices as well as institutional development. For example, economists would argue that when a large denomination declines, the religion is not supplying the right kind of religious good that appeals to the faithful. Like firms, religions compete and supply goods. The economics of religion approach using rational choice theory, assumes that all human beings, regardless of their cultural context, their socio-economic situation, act rationally to further his/her ends. The wide-ranging topics show the depth and breadth of the approach to the study of religion.

Predatory lending: A problem rooted in the past that continues today. Looking for an investment return that could exceed 500 percent annually; maybe even twice that much? Private, unregulated lending to high-risk borrowers is the answer, or at least it was in the United States for much of the period from the Civil War to the onset of the early decades of the twentieth century. Newspapers called the practice “loan sharking” because lenders employed the same ruthlessness as the great predators in the ocean. Slowly state and federal governments adopted laws and regulations curtailing the practice, but organized crime continued to operate much of the business. In the end, lending to high-margin investors contributed directly to the Wall Street crash of 1929. Loan Sharks is the first history of predatory lending in the United States. It traces the origins of modern consumer lending to such older practices as salary buying and hidden interest charges. Yet, as Geisst shows, no-holds barred loan sharking is not a thing of the past. Many current lending practices employed today by credit card companies, payday lenders, and providers of consumer loans would have been easily recognizable at the end of the nineteenth century. Geisst demonstrates the still prevalent custom of lenders charging high interest rates, especially to risky borrowers, despite attempts to control the practice by individual states. Usury and loan sharking have not disappeared a century and a half after the predatory practices first raised public concern.