USURY: THE JOKES ON US

Usury, historically understood as charging interest on loans, faced widespread condemnation across ancient and medieval societies. In Christian nations, prohibitions were rooted in biblical texts like Deuteronomy 23:19-20 and Luke 6:35, which branded interest as exploitative. The Council of Nicaea (325 CE) barred clergy from usury, and by the 12th century, canon law under Pope Innocent III extended this ban to all Christians, equating it with sin. Secular laws, such as England’s Statute of the Jewry (1275), criminalized usury, often targeting Jewish moneylenders who were exempt from Christian restrictions. Other cultures also restricted usury: ancient India’s Vedic laws capped interest rates, Mesopotamia regulated lending, and Islamic Sharia law banned riba (usury) as unjust. Despite these bans, economic demands created loopholes, with Jewish communities often filling the role of moneylenders as Christians and Muslims sought to circumvent their own laws.

Jewish communities, barred from many trades and land ownership in medieval Europe, became synonymous with moneylending due to religious exemptions allowing them to charge interest to non-Jews (Deuteronomy 23:20). The Rothschild family, rising in the 18th century, epitomized this through their international banking empire, started by Mayer Amschel Rothschild in Frankfurt. His sons established banks in London, Paris, Vienna, Naples, and Frankfurt, funding governments and wars, such as Britain’s campaigns against Napoleon. Their strategic marriages and intelligence networks enabled market manipulations, like Nathan Rothschild’s alleged profiteering during the Battle of Waterloo (1815), where early news allowed him to buy stocks cheaply, amassing wealth. Today, descendants of these banking families, alongside modern financial institutions, are seen as maintaining a vice grip on national economies through complex debt instruments and compound interest. Central banks, influenced by private banking interests, issue debt-based currencies, trapping nations in perpetual repayment cycles, with global debt exceeding $300 trillion in 2025, much of it tied to interest-heavy loans from institutions linked to historical Jewish banking networks.

The association of Jews with usury fueled resentment, leading to their expulsion from 109 countries or regions, including England (1290), France (1306), and Spain (1492). These expulsions were often justified by claims of economic exploitation or social unrest, with usury as a key grievance. For instance, Edward I’s Edict of Expulsion cited usury, seizing Jewish assets, while Spain’s 1492 expulsion followed economic turmoil blamed on Jewish lenders. The Rothschilds and similar families faced accusations of economic dominance, reinforcing stereotypes. Modern critics argue these networks still control global finance through institutions like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and central banks, where Jewish representation in leadership is notable. Compound interest, amplifying debts (e.g., U.S. national debt interest payments projected at $1.14 trillion by 2028), binds nations to creditors, perpetuating perceptions of control by a financial elite rooted in historical Jewish banking, though broader economic systems involve diverse actors.