Interest, usury and time: a comment1

Abstract

In this comment it is argued that the paper titled "Interest, usury and time" by J. Tiemstra shows a misunderstanding of the role of interest as remuneration of the production factor capital, as well as the fact that interest also implies the price paid for money as a commodity. This misunderstanding by some Christian economists may sometimes be ascribed to the fact that they still believe there is some validity in the Scholastic views on interest. The distinction between nominal and real prices (interest) for money also becomes a problem when monetary policy is examined. In this comment views on interest and usury will be discussed briefly and then some o f the statements that Tiemstra made in his paper will be dealt with.