Rabbi Steinsaltz is a panelist on the blog OnFaith.  The week of September 16, 2008, the following question was posed:Are the economy's recent financial failures also moral failures?  Are credit and debt religious issues?  DO you have faith in the economy?  Below is Rabbi Steinsaltz's response:

It is clear that the moral element that influenced - perhaps even created - the recent situation, is the growth of greed. When greed is strong enough to waylay caution, it is not only morally reprehensible, but also practically dangerous.

The recent financial failures do have certain moral implications. American financial life has suffered, more publicly in recent years, from a number of frauds perpetrated on a very large scale - acts attributed not to misdeeds of individuals but to the corporate systems themselves.

On a very general scale, these failures show that the belief in capitalism as being the best of all possible systems is rather naive. Capitalism has always had its weak points, and therefore, it should be expected that from time to time there will be very painful upheavals, made only more painful because it is beyond the public's general ability to control them...

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