Starting with some of the economic concepts discussed in the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds, this talk will explore the evolution of markets and ideas throughout the ages, and around the globe – as seen from a Jewish perspective, with some Christian and Islamic perspectives thrown in. Concepts will include property rights, human capital, the economics of the family, the role of government, financial crises, law and economics, allocation of claims on an estate, interest rates, money, signaling, sustainability, behavioral economics, and futures & options markets. We will intellectually visit the cities of Jerusalem, Nazareth, Baghdad, Cairo, Sardis, Ephesus, Toledo, Salamanca, Venice, Rome, Florence, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Recife, London, Frankfurt, London, New York, and Chicago. We will talk about the contributions of thinkers and doers such as Moses Maimonides, Baruch Spinoza, David Ricardo, Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich A. Hayek, the Rothschilds and the Bleichroeders, Milton Freidman, Leo Melamed, Fischer Black, Myron Scholes, and Michael Bloomberg. The speaker’s intention is to provide thumbnail sketches and glimpses of insights rather than definitive answers – meaning that I will be happier if I leave the audience with more questions than answers. Though I will try to be as objective as humanly possible, as Mark Twain once said: “where one stands, depends on where one sits.” And my perspective is that of a Turkish-born, Sephardic, mathematical financial economist and banker, with a Chicago bent.
