I was writing an answer key for my International Finance class just now. In passing, I mentioned an "Edenic business climate." That's when the imaginary ghost of Hugh Nibley walked into my office and took a seat.
Hugh: That is a contradiction in terms. There is no business in Eden, so there cannot be an Edenic business climate.
DW: Alright, fine. I'll call it idyllic then.
Hugh: Idyllic for Bablyon?
DW: Listen, Hugh, I'm trying to write an answer key here, and I'm not teaching a religion class.
Hugh: Why not? Shouldn't you be preparing them for the real world?
DW: I'm not being paid to teach religion. I'm being paid to teach about that part of the real world that deals with international finance and that means talking about business.
Hugh: 'Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of [international finance] were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!' Do your idyllic business conditions improve those?
Hugh: That is a contradiction in terms. There is no business in Eden, so there cannot be an Edenic business climate.
DW: Alright, fine. I'll call it idyllic then.
Hugh: Idyllic for Bablyon?
DW: Listen, Hugh, I'm trying to write an answer key here, and I'm not teaching a religion class.
Hugh: Why not? Shouldn't you be preparing them for the real world?
DW: I'm not being paid to teach religion. I'm being paid to teach about that part of the real world that deals with international finance and that means talking about business.
Hugh: 'Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business: charity, mercy, forbearance, benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of [international finance] were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!' Do your idyllic business conditions improve those?
DW: Thank you, Charles Dickens. Look, I do the best I can to bring ethics into my teaching. I have students consider the impact of these policies on the poor; I continually challenge them to "rove beyond the narrow limits of their money changing holes" to serve their fellow Nigerians; every semester at least one class gets to see me tearing money into shreds to convince them that money is not the point and never has been; according to their answers on the midterm, I seem to have convinced my principles of macro students that their businesses will be best served by paying their workers more;
Hugh: Which you weren't trying to do...
DW: I'll take it anyway. I gave a mini-lecture just last week on Christian and Islamic finance. I do what I can. It's hard being an economist and a preacher at the same time.
Hugh: You mean it's hard to have one foot in Babylon and one in Zion at the same time? Some day you're going to have to choose.
DW: That's not a fair description of me and you know it.
Well, either he gave in at that point or else I had successfully fought against the light long enough to go back to the darkness of mere economics.
And idyllic business climates.
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