| Monday, 20 June 2022 |
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Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],
Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
—Hamlet, Shakespeare
The bard sure knew a thing or two about the perils of lending and borrowing.
But lenders and borrowers have gone about this forever, and will almost certainly continue to do so. It’s a business as old as business itself; only the form changes here and there, if at all. And over the past few years, fintechs have gotten in on the act. For many of them now, lending seems to be the last resort.
Everyone, it seems, wants to lend.
To be fair though, and with due apologies to Shakespeare, lending and borrowing aren’t such bad things—if (and that’s a big if) done fairly and prudently. Many financial empires have been built on the foundation of lending. Many borrowers have used loans to buy (a vehicle, maybe), or build (think businesses or homes), or meet exigencies (like a medical emergency).
