<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">A. Do currency (or bond) traders who buy, sell, structure, restructure, finance, etc.foreign and domestic currencies (or bonds) run into problems of ribis? Are there special arrangements, heterim, etc., that they need to effectuate in order to alleviate any ribis issues? If they work for a Jewish-owned currency or bond trading company, and/or buy and sell from Jewish traders (possibbly worldwide), are there any special issues that they must deal with (ribis; and/or shabbas -- due to overseas transactions where it might be Shabbas in London, but not New York for example). <BR> <BR>B. For the purposes of halachas relating to ribis, can currencies (or bonds) be considered to be commodities? And thus perhaps enjoy some leniences in halachic applications?<BR> <BR>Three excerpts that may
have bearing on the issues: <BR>1. Tosafot (snip)..... (in contemporary times, gold, platinum, anything traded on a commodity exchange) may not be discounted on the basis of early payment. On the other hand, anything that has no precise price (Tosafot's example - a cow, a cloak) may be implicitly discounted. Under no circumstances may the terms of trade be explicitly mentioned. [pg 2, Part 1, Section A; http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/ribis1.html, Rabbi Joseph Stern]<BR> <BR>2. .... Furthermore, as previously discussed, commodities without a set market price are permitted to be sold at a small premium (up to 1/6 for delayed payment). [(pg 4, Section E; http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/ribis1.html, Rabbi Joseph Stern] <BR> <BR>3. Rav Pinchas Teitz, writing in Hapardes some 30 years ago, rationalizes the practice of selling Israeli bonds without a Heter Iska on the basis that Ribis implies a known creditor and
debtor. Here, however, one cannot identify the individuals backing the bonds. Nor at the time of the transaction does the lender know the debtor's identity. Furthermore, it could be argued that all bonds are sold through a broker, invoking Rashi's opinion that is not prohibited. And: However, a respondent in the periodical Hamaor (Jubilee Volume) strongly disputes Rav Teitz's assertion and requires a Heter Iska for bonds. [http://rebeltraderpopcollar.blogspot.com, posted by Rebelwithacause]<BR> <BR>Kol Tuv, Harvey Benton</td></tr></table>