by Kabir Sehgal
96. Cotton Delo, “Your Klout Score Could Get You into American Airlines’ First Class Lounge,” Advertising Age, May 7, 2013, http://adage.com/article/digital/american-airlines-opens-lounge-high-klout-scorers/241336.
97. “Man or Machine,” Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2012, http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304782404577490533504354976.
98. Andrew Ross Sorkin, “A Revolution in Money,” New York Times, April 1, 2014, http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/a-revolution-in-money/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0.
99. Hal E. Hershfield et al., “Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self,” Journal of Marketing Research 48 (November 2011): S23–S37.
Chapter 7. Angel Investors
1. New American Standard Bible (Carol Stream, IL: Creation House, n.d.), p. 324.
2. Pirke Avot (New York: UAHC Press, 1993), p. 56.
3. R. Mahalakshmi, The Book of Lakshmi (New Delhi: Penguin, 2009), p. 96.
4. “The Casualties: Faith in Hard Work and Capitalism,” Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, July 2, 2012, http://www.pewglobal.org/2012/07/12/chapter-4-the-casualties-faith-in-hard-work-and-capitalism.
5. One of the best-known studies on this topic was conducted by Professors Angus Deaton and Daniel Kahneman at Princeton, who analyzed 450,000 responses of Americans from a Gallup poll about their personal happiness and income. They make a distinction between two types of happiness: 1) emotional well-being, one’s daily happiness; and 2) life evaluation, a longer-lasting satisfaction. They found that income and life evaluation are positively correlated: The more money you make, the more satisfied you are with your life. They also found that emotional well-being and income are positively correlated but that the improvement in emotional well-being stalls around the $75,000-a-year mark. For example, 41 percent of people with asthma who made less than $75,000 were reportedly unhappy, but only 21 percent of those making over $75,000 said they were unhappy. Low income worsens an already bad situation, as people have to worry about meeting their basic needs—in addition to their personal afflictions like sickness. The authors conclude that high income buys more life satisfaction but not emotional well-being after a certain point: “High incomes don’t bring you happiness, but they do bring you a life you think is better.” Happiness research is an emerging field in economics and psychology. It’s helping to inform policy makers in distant corners of the world on how to maximize their country’s happiness instead of just wealth. Canadian cities are tracking the happiness levels of their citizenry. Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) measure considers nine attributes, from cultural diversity to living standards. GNH seems to flower from Buddhism, the dominant religion in Bhutan.
6. “State of the Global Workplace,” Gallup, 2013, http://www.gallup.com/strategicconsulting/164735/state-global-workplace.aspx.
7. “Market of Ideas,” Economist, April 7, 2011, http://www.economist.com/node/18527446.
8. Duncan Campbell, “Greed Is Good: A Guide to Radical Individualism,” Guardian, March 9, 2009, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/10/ayn-rand-capitalism.
9. Justin Fox, The Myth of the Rational Market (New York: HarperCollins, 2009), p. xiii.
10. Mark C. Taylor, Confidence Games (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), p. 4.
11. Ibid.
12. Laura Davis, “After Woman Sells Virginity for $780,000, Here Are the Results of Our Prostitution Survey,” Independent, October 25, 2012, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/after-woman-sells-virginity-for-780000-here-are-the-results-of-our-prostitution-survey-8226025.html.
13. Michael J. Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2012). In addition, when anything can be bought, Sandel reasons that inequality may result, since the wealthy can afford what the poor cannot; Steve Hargreaves, “How Income Inequality Hurts America,” CNNMoney, September 25, 2013, http://money.cnn.com/2013/09/25/news/economy/income-inequality.
14. Lao Tsu, Tao te Ching (New York: Random House, 1997), p. 87.
15. David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Kindle ed. (Brooklyn: Melville House, 2011), p. 223.
16. Matthew 6:19–21 (New International Version), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
17. Matthew 6:21 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
18. Matthew 6:24 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
19. Matthew 19:16–22 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
20. Matthew 19:23–24 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
21. The question of who will be saved is also revealed in other passages: “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God” (Matthew 19:26). In Ephesians 2:8–9, “Men are saved through God’s gifts of grace, mercy, and faith.” Matthew (5:3) goes further, stating, “Nothing we do earns salvation for us. It is the poor in spirit who inherit the kingdom of God.”
22. Matthew 19:28–30 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
23. Matthew 5:3 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
24. 1 Chronicles 4:10 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
25. Nanci Hellmich, “Is ‘Jabez’ for the Needy or Greedy?,” USA Today, July 17, 2001, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/life/books/2001-05-24-the-prayer-of-jabez.htm.
26. Laurie Goodstein, “A Book Spreads the Word: Prayer for Prosperity Works,” New York Times, May 8, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/08/us/a-book-spreads-the-word-prayer-for-prosperity-works.html?pagewanted=print&src=pm.
27. Galatians 5:19–21 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
28. Erin McClam, “Greed or Godliness? Prayer Book Creates Controversy in Georgia,” Kingman Daily Miner, June 8, 2001, http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=932&dat=20010608&id=DtNPAAAAIBAJ&sjid=71IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7211,5960921.
29. Matthew 6:22–23 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
30. Timothy Keller, “Treasure vs. Money,” May 2, 1999, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/treasure-vs-money.
31. Juliet Schor, The Overspent American (New York: Harper Perennial, 1999), http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/schor-overspent.html.
32. Hanna Krasnova et al., “Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life,” Wirtschaftsinformatik Proceedings, 2013, http://warhol.wiwi.hu-berlin.de/~hkrasnova/Ongoing_Research_files/WI%202013%20Final%20Submission%20Krasnova.pdf.
33. “Know What the Scriptures Say About Money and Giving,” Brigham Young University, retrieved December 16, 2013, from http://personalfinance.byu.edu/?q=node/1061.
34. Luke 8:11 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
35. Matthew 13:37 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
36. Matthew 13:1–23 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
37. Pope Francis, “Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium,” http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/francesco/apost_exhortations/documents/papa-francesco_esortazione-ap_20131124_evangelii-gaudium_en.html#No_to_the_new_idolatry_of_money.
38. Mark 8:35–36 (King James Version), http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/King-James-Version-KJV-Bible/#books; Matthew 16:26 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
39. Ben Witherington III, Jesus and Money (Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2010), p. 64.
40. Matthew 6:31–34 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
41. Witherington, Jesus and Money, pp. 52–54.
42. Ibid., p. 51.
43. Ibid., p. 53.
44. Henry A. Sanders, “The Number of the Beast in Revelation,” Journal of Biblical Literature 37 (1918): 95–99.
45. Luke 20:22 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
46. Luke 20:25 (KJV), http://www.biblegateway.com/versions/King-James-Version-KJV-Bible/#books.
47. Matthew 21:13 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
48. Luke 6:35 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
49. Acts 2:42–47 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
50. Mark 12:43–44 (NIV), http://www.biblica.com/niv.
51. Keller, “Treasure vs. Money.”
52. C. S. Lewis, Mere Chr
istianity (New York: HarperCollins, 1980), pp. 86–89.
53. Genesis 1:31 (Revised Standard Version), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
54. Deuteronomy 11:14 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
55. Ecclesiastes 5:15 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
56. Exodus 20:4 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
57. Exodus 32:1–35 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
58. Exodus 20:17 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
59. Proverbs 18:23 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
60. Ecclesiastes 5:10 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
61. Deuteronomy 8:13–18 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
62. Larry Kahaner, Values, Prosperity, and the Talmud (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2003), p. 15. Primary source: Babylonian Talmud, Tamid 32b.
63. Job 22:24 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
64. Encyclopedia of Torah Thoughts, trans. Charles B. Chavel (New York: Shilo, 1980), pp. 484–89.
65. Job 22:25 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
66. Proverbs 23:4–5 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
67. Encyclopedia of Torah Thoughts, pp. 484–89.
68. Larry Kahaner, email correspondence, May 27, 2014 (K. Sehgal, interviewer).
69. Proverbs 15:15 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
70. Proverbs 28:27 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
71. Proverbs 11:24 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
72. Deuteronomy 15:11 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
73. Joseph Telushkin, Biblical Literacy (New York: William Morrow, 1997), p. 483.
74. Leviticus 25:36 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html.
75. Ezekiel 18:12–13 (RSV), http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/browse.html. For an in-depth look at usury in Judaism, and how moneylending was perceived in broader society, read Joseph Shatzmiller’s Shylock Reconsidered: Jews, Moneylending, and Medieval Society (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).
76. Telushkin, Biblical Literacy, pp. 473–74. Primary source: Babylonian Talmud, Bava Bathra 9a.
77. Geoffrey Wigoder, ed., The New Encyclopedia of Judaism (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Publishing House, 2002), pp. 161–62.
78. Gerald J. Blidstein, “Tikkun Olam,” in Tikkun Olam (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997), pp. 17–60.
79. Colin Turner, “Wealth as an Immortality Symbol in the Qur’an: A Reconsideration of the ml/amwl Verses,” Journal of Qur’anic Studies 8, no. 2 (2006): 58–83.
80. Asad Zaman, “Islamic Economics: A Survey of the Literature: II,” Islamic Studies 48, no. 4 (2009): 525–66.
81. Qur’ān (Sahih International), www.quran.com, Surat Al-Kahf 18:32–43.
82. Ibid., Surat Al-’Anfāl 8:28.
83. Ibid., Surat Al-Munāfiquūn 63:9.
84. Ibid., Surat Al-Baqarah 2:261.
85. Ibid., Surat At-Tawbah 9:24.
86. Ibid., Surat Al-Fajr 89:20–23.
87. Ibid., Surat Al-Humazah 104:101–103.
88. Turner, “Wealth as an Immortality Symbol in the Qur’an.”
89. Monzer Kahf, correspondence about Islam and wealth, May 25, 2014 (K. Sehgal, interviewer).
90. Turner, “Wealth as an Immortality Symbol in the Qur’an.”
91. Qur’ān (Sahih International), www.quran.com, Surat Ţāhā 20:131.
92. Ibid., Surat Al-’A`rāf 7:152.
93. Ibid., Surat Ţāhā 20:6.
94. Qur’ān 28:77, cited in Zaman, “Islamic Economics: A Survey of the Literature: II.”
95. Michael Bonner, “Poverty and Economics in the Qur’an,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35, no. 3 (2005): 391–406.
96. Muhammad Arkam Khan, Islamic Economics and Finance: A Glossary (New York: Routledge, 1990), p. 157.
97. Qur’ān (Sahih International), www.quran.com, Surat An-Nisā’ 4:161.
98. M. Siddieq Noorzoy, “Islamic Laws on Riba (Interest) and Their Economic Implications,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 14, no. 1 (1982): 3–17.
99. Muhammad Anwar, “Islamicity of Banking and Modes of Islamic Banking,” Arab Law Quarterly 18, no. 1 (2003): 62–80.
100. “Lakshmi,” BBC, August 24, 2009, http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/deities/lakshmi.shtml.
101. Mahalakshmi, The Book of Lakshmi, pp. 1–20.
102. Ibid., p. 72.
103. Sharada Sugirtharajah, “Picturing God,” in P. Bowen, ed., Themes and Issues in Hinduism (London: Cassell, 1998), pp. 161–203.
104. Mahalakshmi, The Book of Lakshmi, pp. 6–8.
105. Ibid., pp. 71–94.
106. “Dhanteras Symbolizes Arrival of Goddess Lakshmi,” Times of India, November 1, 2013, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-11-01/kanpur/43591930_1_dhanteras-dhanavantri-goddess-lakshmi.
107. Wendy Doniger, The Hindus: An Alternative History (New York: Penguin, 2009), p. 378.
108. Albert Hall Museum, Jaipur, “Gallery Collection: Coins,” http://alberthalljaipur.gov.in/displaycontents/view/49.
109. Donald R. Davis Jr., “Being Hindu or Being Human: A Reappraisal of the purusārthas,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 8, no. 1/3 (2004): 1–27; S. R. Bhatt, “The Concept of Moksa—An Analysis,” Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 364 (1976): 564–70.
110. Arvind Sharma, “The purusārthas: An Axiological Exploration of Hinduism,” Journal of Religious Ethics (1999): 223–56.
111. French economist Thomas Piketty asserts in his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century that there is a tendency for capitalism to lead to greater inequality. If this is the case, then the market divides people based on the resources allocated. Paul Courtright, a professor at Emory University, points out that if he’s right then the market is adharmic, inherently immoral. To right this wrong, we must channel the market against itself—redistributing capital in a fairer manner. We need to make money in order to give it away.
112. “Ashrama,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/38363/ashrama.
113. Sharma, “The purusārthas.”
114. Bhagavad Gita, 5:18–22, trans. Stephen Mitchell (New York: Harmony Books, 1998), p. 85.
115. Ibid., 5:18–29, pp. 85–87.
116. “Meditation Mapped in Monks,” BBC, March 1, 2002, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1847442.stm.
117. Joshua Landy, “In Defense of Humanities,” December 7, 2010, http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/december/humanities-defense-landy-120710.html.
Chapter 8. Gilt Complex
1. D. Wayne Johnson, email correspondence, March 4, 2014 (K. Sehgal, interviewer).
2. Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island (New Jersey: J. P. Piper Books, 2013), p. 58.
3. I discovered the quote here: R. S. Poole, “LakdivaCoins Collection,” retrieved March 2, 2014, from http://coins.lakdiva.org. Original source is here: R. S. Poole, “On the Study of Coins,” Antiquary 9 (1884): 7–10.
4. While I was in Dhaka, some of the news headlines read: “Opposition supporters hurl petrol-bomb at police vehicle in Rajshahi”; “10 injured in clash. Policeman injured after handmade bomb explodes”; “72 hour blockade effective 6:00 am. Embassy travel restrictions in effect. Exercise caution. Remain vigilant.”
5. Wari-Bateshwar, retrieved February 5, 2014, from http://www.parjatan.gov.bd/wari_arc.php.
6. Reema Islam, “A Family’s Passion,” Archaeology, October 13, 2013, http://archaeology.org/issues/112–1311/letter-from/1406-wari-bateshwar-ptolemy-sounagoura-indo-pacific-beads.
7. This was a dramatic experience. In order to get us through the blockade, my friend suggested that we hire an ambulance. He explained that for 4,000 Bangladeshi taka, or 50 US dollars, we could hire an emergency vehicle with tinted win
dows to drive us through the blockade, and the angry mob might let us pass. I was hesitant because it didn’t sound safe or ethical. Another friend, a television producer who was with us, said, “I can use my media van to get us through unharmed, but we’ll need to start early, five a.m.” I awoke at 4 a.m. I removed all the unnecessary items from my wallet, and I stuffed a fork from the hotel restaurant in my jean pocket—just in case. I waited in the lobby. 5:00… 5:15… 5:30. Finally, a vanilla white van with no decals arrives. “Where are your media credentials?” I asked. “There,” he said, pointing to a sheet of white paper on the dashboard, with the word media scrawled in black ink. The only thing keeping me from an angry mob was a piece of paper pulled from an office HP Inkjet printer. I slid the door closed and kept my eyes shut.
8. Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, “Coins and Currency System,” in Rahman, ed., Archaeological Heritage (Dhaka: Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, 2007), pp. 108–44.
9. Emran Hossain, “Wari-Bateshwar One of Earliest Kingdoms,” Daily Star, March 19, 2008, http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=28431.
10. “1890s Glass Pattern Has Value Far Beyond a Few Coins,” Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, March 25, 2007, http://www.jsonline.com/realestate/29340799.html.
11. Cornelius C. Vermeule, Numismatic Art in America (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971), pp 20–24.
12. Ibid., Preface.
13. UNESCO, “Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property,” November 14, 1970, http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13039&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html.
14. “Coin Collecting,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, retrieved February 9, 2014, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/124774/coin-collecting.
15. James A. Mackay, The World Encyclopedia of Coins (Leicestershire: Lorenz Books, 2012), pp. 58–59.
16. James L. Noles, A Pocketful of History (Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2008), pp. xxii–xxiii.
17. Ibid., p. xxiv.
18. “United States Mint Call for Artists: Seeking Artists to Design United States Coins and Medals,” National Endowment for the Arts, retrieved May 28, 2014, from http://arts.gov/grants-individuals/united-states-mint-call-for-artists.
