[Avodah] Heter Iska and "The Howey Rule"

[Micha Berger]

On Mon, Feb 12, 2018 at 11:58:36AM -0500, Yonatan Kaganoff via Avodah wrote:
: In short (tl;dr) the Howey Rule was the outcome of a landmark Supreme Court
: decision (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SEC_v._W._J._Howey_Co.) defining a
: "security" and how it differs from a "commodity".

But the point of heter isqa is not to change the noun, but the verb.

A person can't lend for neshekh o tarbit. Nothing said about what is lent.
Admittedly the definition of "security" you gave seems specific to
investing rather than lending. But still, I don't know if focusing on
the object is the right approach.


: (I am personally interested in which cryptocurrencies are commodities and
: which are securities.)

An easier question -- I don't think they're mamon. Mamon seems to be limited
to the local primary medium of exchange. Even down to silver vs gold, if one
metal is the primary coinage and the other is only used more rarely.

Borrowing foreign currency has to be either linked to the local currency
or it's ribbis derekh meqach umemkar, like a commodity.


Hey, I'm totally ignorant on the subject. But when has that stopped me from
chiming in before?

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             The fittingness of your matzos [for the seder]
micha at aishdas.org        isn't complete with being careful in the laws
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Fax: (270) 514-1507      the laws of business.    - Rav Yisrael Salanter