My grandfather was an old-time Methodist minister. He turned out to be the greatest moral influence in my life. He said something strange to me when I was a teenager: "It is morally wrong to sell something for more than you honestly believe it's worth." Boy, I thought that was whacky at the time.
But let me tell you about my grandfather. He was charitable to a fault. He put the needs of others ahead of his own, sometimes ahead of his wife and five children, including my father. So he was always poor. At his funeral service, the church choir loft was filled with over 70 men and women he brought to God who later became ministers themselves.
He regarded service to others as the greatest virtue, and judgment of others the greatest sin. When he heard that my father had been badly cheated by his business partner, he broke into tears and cried out "That poor man! That poor man!" He wasn't crying for my father.
When I became a lawyer, I began to experience the many ways men cheated each other. I'll be darned if it didn't seem to always involve some form of selling something for more than it was worth.
Now we have the housing market crash and the banking meltdown. I can hear my grandfather crying "Those poor people!" He would be crying for those who think the "strong fundamentals of our economy" is just our ability to sell things for more than they're worth.