Quick thoughts on the huge settling of accounts presently unfurling through the financial systems of our rich countries. Every weekend or so for several weeks now, decisions involving hundreds of millions of work hours are being taken by small groups of unelected officials (experts, old Wall Street hands, etc.). Congress acts as if it is looking into it. Some hands get wrung or go flailing. Huge debts by banks and other financial institutions (if one can call them that) are being forgiven, that is, are becoming part of huge money creation (new money is made by debt, once leveraged). Investment banks, commercial banks, now car companies, many come hat in hand to ask for help and forgiveness. Which reminds me of Matthew’s parable (18.23-34, nihil novi sub sole):

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began the reckoning, a man who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him; and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made. So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, “have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt. But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owned him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, “Pay what you owe.” Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, “have patience with me, and I will pay you.” But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt. When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place. Then his lord summoned him and said to him, “You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.

The problem with allegorizing this parable and folding it unto our situation: where is the king in our system? where is the reckoning at the center? Who is doing the debt forgiveness? A government? hardly. As in those old parables portraying distant kings in far-flung kingdoms and empires, our financial structure too is spatially and temporally stretched out. Banks offshore, complex interconnected accounts mirroring each other ad infinitum, leveraging instruments by which the real reckoning is reported to a later date and an ever further elsewhere. To be paid by whom? Blind historical causality and its occasional hiccups? But the “pay what you owe” is alive and well: credit card companies have long been charging usurious rates and are not going to stop now. Banks need this income more than ever. And Biden and other democrats helped the creditors make individual bankrupcy much more difficult (2002).

So there will be full forgiveness (no matter the public upbraidings) for those “too large to fail”, and too influential, and therefore whose prostrations are still more significant, more credible than those of the small guy owing 100 denarii (about 1/3 of a year full employment: say 15K). Because done by those used also to manipulate, since they are very experienced both in entertaining begging demands (clients) and acceding to, or refusing them. Creditors themselves, they decide how much trust to allocate, how much credit. The small creditor at the bottom of the pile or the pyramid has few on whom or against whom to turn. His family, neighbors, co-workers? He can’t fake his requests as well as those owing 10K talents (“I will pay you everything”). He can’t promise full repayment, or is too honest about it. Which is (the forced honesty) what makes him credit-worthy for others.

A parable is a nice map. But one could imagine another ending, and a different reaction of the fellow slaves. The big-time debtor would feel good to have fooled his king once more with his play for pity. On the way down from the palace, he would be surrounded by sycophants who would start right away with the urgent task of grabbing the small-time debtors. Newspaper columnists of the time would attack the profligate ways of the masses, their imprudence, their lack of foresight, etc.

For another take on all of this, see this particularly beautiful commentary on the equation: John Lennon on peace.