Dr. Yaron Brook attempted to debunk some of the mainstays of economic thought Tuesday to a group of about 30 people in Annenberg Hall.

The NU Objectivist Club brought Brook, president of the Ayn Rand Institute to discuss the history and role of moneylenders. Objectivists stress the tenets of rationality and personal responsibility outlined by author Ayn Rand.

Usury, which originally meant lending money on interest, has taken on a connotation of wickedness, Brook said in his speech, titled “Moral Defense of Finance: A Historical and Philosophical Perspective.” Usury has been renounced by almost every great thinker, he said, citing intellectuals such as Ezra Pound, William Shakespeare and Adam Smith.

“Medieval artists saw (usurers) dragged down to hell with money bags attached to their necks,” Brook said.

The condemnation of usurers began with the church, which cited biblical passages that limited the practice to Jews lending to non-Jews. Gradually usury became necessary for transaction beyond the Dark Ages’ barter system, and as it became necessary for colonization and the Industrial Revolution, thinkers began to find loopholes to allow it. Even though finance proved to be “a productively and economically viable activity,” usurers, mostly Jews, continued to face moral condemnation. Brook said this was likely the starting point of European anti-Semitism.

Through the ages, people have been wary of those who could make money from lending money and have depicted usurers as greedy and evil. If usurers profit through lending, borrowers most be growing poorer, church officials have reasoned, he said.

Bankers continue to be castigated even today and Wall Street is blamed for every economic downturn, Brook said.

“After all the good bankers have brought to this world, bankers are still being demonized,” he said.

Capitalists have profited tremendously by lending money, but they also have created “the greatest social welfare program,” Brook said. Without them the capital necessary for economic development would not be available and people would still be surviving on subsistence agriculture, he said.

“What is missing is a philosophical revolution that shows the morality of profit-seeking,” Brook said.

Even the collapse of Enron can be attributed to government regulation of moneylenders, Brook said. Because the government prevents board members from owning more than 5 percent of publicly-owned companies, those who manage companies lack the self-interest those owning a large share of the business possess.

“The one thing it does not do is look out for shareholders,” Brook said.

Some audience members said Brook sustained their belief in Ayn Rand’s philosophy.

“It reinforced a lot of things that I already realized,” said Richard Latimer of Wheaton, Ill.

Merlin Jetton of Downers Grove, a nearby suburb, said Brook’s condemnation of government regulation of company board members was something he hadn’t considered before.

“It’s stupid,” he said of the government regulation. “People who have control (politicians) have a bad conception of what independence is.”