CAN GOVERNMENT CURB THE ANIMAL SPIRITS

Ismail Yurdakk
ismailyurdakok@gmail.com
When the world economics crisis reached 6th years old in the autumn of 2013, Animal Spirits
of Shiller and Akerlof was remembered in a few days, when Shiller was announced as Nobel
laureate. Some economists had said this book is a milestone in economics, some a
manifesto. It may be asked that What has changed after five years of Akerlof-Shillers
manifesto? Although some scholars noted Not to be slaves to the Animal Spirits but/and
some mentioned economics neglected psychology and lost its way on the trip from Adam
Smith through Keynesianism to laissez-faire.. And, some offered to recognize the central
role of the spirits. And a few men asked Is Akerlof-Shillers best offer the government
regulation sufficient for a good economy?
Behavioral economics from Islamic perspectives/Islamic behavioral economics will be
studied in the paper. Behavioral patterns of Muslims How can nafs(ego) drives the
individuals (familys, nations) economy, Muslims beliefs and psychological aspects of
economics, changed mode of Islamic life and is it possible to rechange it? Muslims
consumer mentality and consumer behaviours of Muslims under the heavy rains of
advertising media, billboards, magazines, newspapers, tv, internets, spams and is it possible to
resist them. Influence of belief on markets and kuwwa-i shahawaniyya, kuwwa-i
gadabiyya Is it possible to depopularization of markets with rebuilding productive
family; imitation as a dangerous demonstration effect brain or ego which one is more
active in the decision process? will also be studied in the text.
Introduction. Will wobbly man (roly-poly toy) be able to stand up again? Capitalism, in the
past, achieved to stand up after a lot of crisis especially in last 125 years. After two great crisis
of 1893 and 1929, the world has been busy with to investigate the reasons of the crisis of
2008. On December 2003, the Director of London School of Economics Craig Calhoun asked
Has Capitalism Have a Future? (as Asaf Sava Akat notes) No doubt capitalism had
transformed the whole world as a great Las Vegas (as Nazif Grdoan notes.) It may be
asked that has the (Western) World made/prepared the postmortem of 2008 crisis? The
dominant characteristics of Islamic economics in the past was the Hereafter responsibility.
Revival of this responsibility against the deceiving factors of modern economy is possible.
Some important sentences will be given from Akerlof-Shillers Animal Spirits and then a general Islamic
viewpoint will be studied. Reading the first sentence, on the cover of the Book, How Human Psychology
Drives The Economy, And Why It Matters For a Global Capitalism, authors say (in the preface of ninth
edition that written on October 2009, for the edition of 2010)
Textbooks of economics, still do not give much enlightenment about the
ultimate drivers of the economy ..that declining animal spirits are the principal
reason for the recent severe economic crisis. And, despite the recent positive
economic indicators, we see no clear indication that these spirits are yet
revived. The basic theme of this book is that animal spirits are the force that
drives all of this, and that to understand animal spirits we have to use
methodologies outside of traditional economics, leading us to other social
sciences. The authors emphasize the shortcomings of unregulated capitalism,

the soft underbelly of capitalism, People had taken the invisible hand too
seriously, and enshrined it, Indeed, our analogies and our picture of capitalism
the confidence, the role of corruption and bad faith, the role of stories in the
working of the economyseem to exactly fit the mania and the subsequent
panic., In the book, we talk about the role of government. Our view is that
capitalist societies have problems if they are not watched over. The cycles of
overoptimism and overpessimism that translate into excesses of speculative
boom and bust give the government a role. Its first role is to see that the rules of
financial markets.., it is also the role of the government to repair the damage,
the unadulterated invisible hand, And now should be the time when we are
making plans for what happens if there are future shocks: if there are future
Lehman Brothers, future massive declines in the stock market, yet more
unanticipated bankruptcies, Animal Spirits will not answer all of the tough
questions now facing our economy. But it does give a picture of how a capitalist
economy works, especially at the macro level, errant animal spirits, much
economic activity is governed by animal spirits, In Keynes view these animal
spirits are the main cause for why the economy fluctuates as it does, To
understand the economy then is to comprehend how it is driven by the animal
spirits. Just as Adam Smiths invisible hand is the keynote of classical economics,
Keynes animal spirits are the keynote to a different view of the economy a
view that explains the underlying instabilities of capitalism, why our
government set the preconditions that allowed Wall Street to get drunk and then
sat idly by while it overindulged, (After Keynes) The animal spirits had been
relegated to the dustbin of intellectual history, It is therefore necessary for us
to renew our understanding of how capitalist economies in which people have
not only rational economic motives but also all kinds of animal spiritsreally
work, This book, which draws on an emerging field called behavioral
economics, describes how the economy really works, With the advantage of
over seventy years of research in the social sciences, we can develop the role of
animal spirits in macroeconomics in a way that the early Keynesians could not.
And because we acknowledge the importance of animal spirits, and accord them
a central place in our theory rather than sweep them under the rug, this theory is
not vulnerable to attack, The exponents of capitalism wax poetic over the
goods it provides. It produces whatever can be turned out at a profit..But the
bounty of capitalism has at least one downside. It does not automatically
produce what people really need; it produces what they think they need, and are
willing to pay for. If they are willing to pay for real medicine, it will produce real
medicine. But if they are also willing to pay for snake oil, it will produce snake oil.
Indeed nineteenthcentury America had a whole industry devoted to fraudulent
patent medicines. To take just one example, William Rockefeller, the father of
John D. Rockefeller, was an itinerant huckster. He would roll into town in his
buggy, distribute flyers and hire criers announcing his arrival, give a lecture on
his miracle cures in the town square, and then hold court for customers in a hotel
suite. Rockefeller Senior seemed to have a natural talent for deception..

The book studies on the harms and benefits of animal spirits and after the publishing of the book, some
proposals of the authors were codificated by the United States (after the 2008 crisis).
In a reality, the book does not give fundamental solutions for future economic catastrophes. Whereas,
and no doubt banks have been the locomotives of the disaster trains. But authors struggle to hide the harms
of banks. And they claim the real reason of the past financial calamities was from the nonexisting of a
Federal Reserve. But no doubt, if a careful reader reads the book thoroughly, this notion will be formed in
his mind that future crisis will also be the retelling the stories of past banking panics. The authors give

(Michael) Milken (and (Jeffrey) Skilling, (Andrew) Fastow) as a wicked example. But after reading the
book, one may ask Did all Milkens exhaust? Did all Milkens out of Market? Which community/Which
economic/ethical conditions had produced Milkens, Skillings, Fastows? Even Arthur Andersen that the
authors write its name that was the worlds one the most famous/the most trustworthy accounting firms.
Arthur Andersen pretended not to see the Enrons frauds that to whom the peoples of the world would
trust? The sentence of the Book about A. Andersen: They received large bonuses for the loans and for
consulting work that they booked to Enron. They might care when the scheme crashed, since the highly
remunerative game would be over; but it would be others taking the actual losses. Nor did the accountants
for Enron, the firm of Arthur Andersen, blow the whistle. They were afraid that if they did so they would
lose the rich consulting contracts that Enron was also giving them. It was yet another sweetheart deal.(in
part three)
Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, is a holding company and formerly one of the Big Five
accounting firms among Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Deloitte Touche, Ernst&Young and KPMG, providing
auditing, tax, and consulting services to large corporations. In 2002, the firm voluntarily surrendered its
licenses to practice as Certified Public Accountants in the United States after being found guilty of
criminal charges relating to the firm's handling of the auditing of Enron, an energy corporation based
in Texas, which had filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and later failed. The other national accounting and
consulting firms bought most of the practices of Arthur Andersen. The verdict was subsequently
overturned by the Supreme Court of the United States. However, the damage to its reputation has
prevented it from returning as a viable business, though it still nominally exists. Migration of partners and
local offices to new firms: Many partners formed new companies or were acquired by other consulting
firms. Examples include: Huron Consulting; KPMG which absorbed the Computer Forensics division
based in Cypress, CA and the Boise; Kansas City, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle offices, among others;
Navigant Consulting which absorbed eleven partners in Chicago and Washington D.C.; Perot
Systems which absorbed six partners in the East; Protiviti hired approximately 800 former workers;
SMART Business Advisory and Consulting which absorbed some of the Philadelphia Office; West Monroe
Partners; WTAS which was started in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Washington D.C.
and West Palm Beach and later expanded to 8 other locations; Grant Thornton International which
absorbed the North Carolina and South Carolina offices; True Partners Consulting
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen, 22.02.2014))
One of the useful notes in the Book that Akerlof-Shiller declare to open a wider window for behavioral
economics:
This book, which draws on an emerging field called behavioral
economics, describes how the economy really works. It accounts for how
it works when people really are human, that is, possessed of all-toohuman animal spirits. And it explains why ignorance of how the economy
really works has led to the current state of the world economy, with the
breakdown of credit markets and threat of collapse of the real economy
in train. With the advantage of over seventy years of research in the
social sciences, we can develop the role of animal spirits in
macroeconomics in a way that the early Keynesians could not. And
because we acknowledge the importance of animal spirits, and accord
them a central place in our theory rather than sweep them under the
rug, this theory is not vulnerable to attack.
Although the authors emphasize the importance of animal spirits, but the book
does not contain knowledge about how the mans animal spirits will be educated/trained.
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They (mostly) focus and tell the history of financial crisis. Whereas the main problem is to
find the ways to correct the animal spirits (of man). From this point, George Loewenstein and
Ted ODonoghues paper Animal Spirits: Affective and Deliberative Processes in Economic
Behavior is a more useful and detailed study. But Loewenstein and ODonoghue focus on
human brain. The problem of Western academia is its neglect the power and characteristics of
heart. hearts understanding and education of heart is almost totally neglected by Western
scholars. Baba Shiv of Stanford University and other academicians study on economybehavior relations, insist the research (only) on human brain and thats why to control the
egos is not possible in Western approach. Loewenstein and Donoghue build their study on the
sentences of Rita Carter:
At the center of the brain lies a cluster of strange-shaped modules that
together are known
as the limbic system. This is the powerhouse of the brain generator of
the appetites,
urges, emotions and moods that drive our behavior. Our conscious
thoughts are mere
moderators of the biologically necessary forces that emerge from this
unconscious
underworld; where thought conflicts with emotion, the latter is designed
by the neural
circuitry in our brains to win.Rita Carter, Mapping the Mind. (1998:54)
(But) And at the end of the Loewenstein-Donoghues paper, there are original sentences for
the future of economics:
When the foundations of neoclassical economic theory were being put
into place in the late-19th century, for example, economists of the time
were acutely aware of the important role played by emotions in economics
and wrote extensively of emotional influences on behavior. They tended,
however, to view affect as an erratic, unpredictable force that was too
complicated to incorporate into the mathematical models of behavior they
were so anxious to formulate. As economics became increasingly
mathematized, the appreciation of affect waned commensurately. Even so,
many prominent economists continued to write about the role of affect in
economics Francis Edgeworth, Eugene von Bhm-Bawerk, Irving Fisher,
Tibor Scitovsky, George Katona, Herbert Simon, Harvey Leibenstein, and,
perhaps most famously, Keynes. But due to the difficulty in integrating
affect into formal models of behavior, discussions of affect have been
segregated from formal economic models much like Adam Smiths
segregation of his psychology and economics into two separate volumes.
With the aid of recent developments in psychology and neuroscience that,
to a remarkable degree, vindicate Smiths early insights, we hope to
accelerate the process of reintegrating affect in formal economic
analyses.
But after ten years of publishing of this paper, it shoud be asked that are there brilliant studies in this field?
In a reality, unless we focus on hearts functions and importance of religious rules on human, it will be
difficult to reach positive solutions for the controlling of mans mistake economic behaviors.

But a news from Harvard Gazette in October 2010 mentiones this topic: Values: In addition,
some Harvard experts believe that people should step back from the economys particulars
more often and focus on the moral dimension. Organizations such as Interfaith Worker
Justice, a network of people of faith who educate and mobilize the religious community
around labor rights, can prompt meaningful discussions on the economy and its effects on
workers, according to a scholar at Harvard Divinity School (HDS). In the past, religious
traditions have weighed in on the material conditions of peoples lives, said Bethany Moreton,
a research associate and visiting faculty member at HDS. It was always at the center of what
prophetic religion felt it had a right to speak to. It took enormous amounts of cultural and
intellectual work to declare something the economy and remove it from the realm of religion
and morality and social action. Today, the notion of the economy is instead in this
pseudoscientific realm, she said. We can only describe it. We cannot control it, or opine
about it, or address it in moral terms. Moreton believes that discussion of such matters ought
to return to the pulpit and to congregations across the country. The crisis itself has made
these topics feel again like something that we have the right to address in moral terms.
(Moreton, 2010)
THE BIGGEST TYCOON OF EGYPT. Akerlof and Shiller emphasize in Animal Spirits, the positive and
negative sides of importances of stories. Stories are important for human mind. Akerlof-Shiller mentione
"tales of how others are getting rich" in Gold Rush in 19th century and Internet sector with reference to
Shillers Irrational Exuberance detailed the importance of the story of the invention and exploitation of the
Internet (which first became available to the public in 1994) in producing the stock market boom that
lasted from the mid-1990s to 2000, which in turn led to an economic boom." But authors also mention
"As years go by we forget these stories of the past, and thus we tend to be mystified by the causes of past
stock market moves and macroeconomic fluctuations." And they emphasize: "The human mind is built to
think in terms of narratives, of sequences of events with an internal logic and dynamic that appear as a
unified whole. Social psychologists Roger Schank and Robert Abelson have argued that stories and
storytelling are fundamental to human knowledge. Peoples memories of essential facts are, they argue,
indexed in the brain around stories. Facts that are remembered are attached to stories." (Part One, Five
Stories) The authors also repeat the importance of stories in the last page of the book: This book cannot
give the detailed answers to these questions. It is our contention in this book that the working of the
economy, and the role of government in it, cannot be described solely by considering economic motives.
Such description also requires detailed understandings of confidence, of fairness, of opportunities for
corruption, of money illusion, and of stories that are handed to us by history. Quran educates individuals
and communities with real life tales. The man is advised to adopt good behaviours in social and economic
life. Duties of the man is reminded. The man must avoid from animal spirits that is he/she must not give
chance no his/her ago and Satan to deceive him/her. As an example: Boundless wealth of Qarun (Korah).
Quran describes as a very influential example of Qarun and his tragic end that every Muslim must not
forget it to acquire good humours and habits. And in every Islamic community from Morocco to Indonesia,
Qarun's story is known. (Also Jewish sources narrate Qarun's story.) Quran describes the big economic
power of Qarun: "Korah (Qarun) was of Moses's people. But he oppressed them; and We gave him so
much treasure that the keys thereof would verily have been a burden for a troop of mighty men. His nation
said to him: 'Don't be arrogant. Allah does not like the arrogant. But seek the abode of the Hereafter in that
which Allah has given you, and do not forget your portion of the world, and be you kind even as Allah has
been kind to you, and seek not corruption in the earth; Allah does not like corrupters.' (That is, 'spend your

wealth in charity and good works. It is Allah Who has given it to you, and you should spend it in Allah's
cause. Nor you should forget the legitimate needs of this life, as misers do, and most people become misers
who think too exclusively of their wealth.') He said: 'I have been given this wealth only on account of
knowledge I possess.' Did not he know that Allah had destroyed already of the generations before him men
who were mightier than him in strength and greater in respect of following?" (Quran, 28: 76-78) Another
anecdot in Quran is the the life of the Prophet Joseph (Yusuf). He encouraged the government (and the
nation) for savings: "He (Joseph) said: 'You shall sow, as usual, for seven years. Leave in the ear the corn
you reap, except a little which you may eat. Then will come after that seven years of severity, which will
consume all but a little of that which you have stored for them."(12: 47-48) The Prophet Joseph as a
supreme authority over the economic affairs took all necessary precautions for the draught, improving
farming techniques, and establishing a system of stores for use in the difficult years ahead. During the
years of draught, people from around the Middle East came to Egypt to buy grain.(Uzunolu, 1992, 241)
Did they develop their theory? At the last of the Part One, the Akerlof-Shiller say:
We now turn to the second part of this book..in the process of answering these
questions, we will develop our own theory of economic instability, of economic
problems and of our suggested strategies for solving them, and also offer our
prescription for how to deal with the current economic and financial crisis.

Akerlof-Shiller always notice Money illusion but they can not say interest illusion. They do not
mention the harms of interest. On the contrary, they point and emphasize and praise the power of
compound interest (especially in Part Ten.) They mention the harms of the leveraged investments but also
do not say one word about interest. But authors opinion about savings is original and right:
Lee Kuan Yew, the longtime prime minister of Singapore, may be one of the

most important economic thinkers of the twentieth century. His high-saving

economy became a model for China, which has copied Singapores saving
achievement and has now been achieving significant economic growth for
decades.
Akerlof-Shiller also bravely point the mistake Western culture of overconsumption :
But the United States, and to a lesser extent Western Europe, is only one among
many cultures, one in which the common view is that people should spend their
money. Countries in East Asiafor example, Singapore and China have
harnessed different cultural understandings of how one should behave toward
consumption and saving. Indeed both of these countries have made very high
levels of saving a major vehicle in achieving spectacular economic growth. As we
have seen, saving policy can also be one of the keys to a nations economic
growth. Animal spirits explain the puzzle of the arbitrariness and variability of
saving. And understanding these animal spirits is in turn critical to the design of
national policies on saving.(Part Ten)

According to Quran, Satan encourages the spendthrift (and ego drives it.) : For the wasteful (squanderers)
are Satans brothers, and Satan is ever ungrateful to his God. (17: 27) Akerlof-Shiller also point harms of
credit cards. No doubt, credits cards are the enemies of savings. When they define an American the
authors note:
He should have a credit card. If he sees something at the mall that strikes his

fancy it is appropriate not to resist it.That is what the story of capitalism is all
about. That is what it means to be a good American. (Part Ten )

Another very good sentence of the Book is about stock market:

One cannot decisively prove that the stock market has been irrational. But in all
of this debate no one has offered any real evidence to think that the volatility is
rational.(Part Eleven)
For Self-control or to Control Feelings. For controlling the ego there are precautions that Quran

and the Prophet teach the humanity. The Prophet Muhammad used to say in daily prayers Allahumma
inn azu bike min fitnatid-dunya (O My God I seek refuge in You from the sedition of the world)
Fitna-i lam=fitna-i dunya means: a beauty who sets the whole world in commotion. The Prophet also
used to take refuge in Allah from debt in daily prayers: Allahumma inni azu bika min ghalabati-dayni
wa kahrir-rijal (O my God! I seek refuge in You from the (heavy) debt and cruel men) (Bukhari and
Muslim) That is every man first of all think not to take into debt. Islam does not encourage to take debt.
But encourages partnership between capital owners and entrepreneurs. But Western economic thought
depends on take debt and pay interest even in every transactions. And the Western economic instituons
are built on this concept. Interest will be the income of some the men of capitalist society in every times.
Thats why debt is not a problem to seek refuge in Allah in capitalist society.
Three Jewish Behind the Ghost Of Keynes. When Keynesianism has been popular again in

recent years, no one mentiones the harms of interest. Three Jewish economists that all of them were given
Nobel awards: Krugman, Akerlof, Shiller that they are the ardent supporters of New Keynesian
movement, in a reality they are not great economists that were seen in 19th and 20th centuries. They
propose not-fundamental solutions for economic crisis. Krugman-Akerlof-Shillers model is to earn
money from money that is not a new one. But an addition that they want an interest system under the
control and support of the State. Twenty years ago, Paul Krugman had said:
Why did the magic economy go away? Hundreds of books have been written on that topic.
This isnt one of them -although Ill devote part of a chapter to some plausible stories and
take a number of stabs at the issue along the way. But let me cut to the chase: the real
answer is that we dont know. There are a lot of stories out there. Most of them, including
the ones that have achieved the widest currency, are dead wrong on logical or factual
grounds. There are some less popular stories that could be right but if you are honest with
yourself, you will admit that nobody, yourself included, knows which if any of these stories
actually is right. The problem is that We dont know is not a very encouraging answer. Its
especially unsatisfying for politicians faced with an increasingly pessimistic and angry
electorate. Fort hem, the question of why the magic went away and how to get it back isnt
an academic exercise. Their jobs depend on finding an answer not necessarily an answer
taht is right, but at least one that will convince enough of the voters that they can make
things beter. So what do you do when the magic isnt working? You look for a new set of
magicians. This is a book about that search.. (Krugman, 1995, 5)
Not to be deceived by Satan. Quran gives an advise: And if a temptation from the devil wound

you, then seek refuge in Allah. He is Hearer, Knower (7:200) To say L ilhe illllhu wahdahu l
sharka lah lahul mulku wa lahul hamdu wa Huwa al kulli shayin kadr ten times after the sunset prayer
and daybreak prayer ten times also protect the man from the temptation of Satan.. (Bukhari and Muslim)
Reciting every night and every morning muavvizt also protect from the temptation of Satan (Buhari and
Muslim) Bad tempers like greed, envy, pride.. are from ago and Satan stimulates these tempers and man
does mistake economic behaviors from the force of these bad humours. Muawwizt are the three small
7

chapters of Quran Ikhls, Falaq and Ns. In the Ikhls Worshipper recites it and thinks Allah is
Samad that is Allah is the Giver of the all of the needs and there is no need for greed, no need for lottery,
no need for gambling, Allah will give your sustenance. In the Falaq and Ns worshipper also seek
refuge in Allah: Say: I seek refuge in the God of the daybreak. From the evil of what He created; From
the evil of the darkness when it is intense. And from the evil of the witches blowing on knots; And from
the evil of an envier when he envies. Say: I seek refuge in the God of mankind. The King of mankind.
The God of mankind. From the evil of the slinking whisperer, who whispers in the hearts of mankind, of
the jinn and of mankind.
Some Notes From Elmall and Mehmed Vehbi Efendi. The Quran Interpretations of

Muhammed Hamdi Yazr and Mehmed Vehbi Efendi are the most famous and the most read Quran
Interpretations in Turkey in 20th century. Elmall (1878-1942) prepared the study (Hak Dini Kuran Dili)
between the years of 1926-1938. Elmalls some explanations on animal spirits:
Worshippers to their desires: One of the warnings in the Chapter of Maide in Quran (5:77) to
Jews and Christians should not follow their desires. The words singular form is Hava and
plural ahva that approximately are seen in thirty different verses (of different chapters),
means: strong desire, inclination, zeal, mania, excessive fondness to ones own
personality(self-indulgentness.) They (Jews and Christians) are not able to accept the straight
message of Allah because 1-They do not aim at finding the true realities in religion 2- Thats
why they are mostly in the position of partisanship and they insist with their mistake thoughts.
3- They imitate their past great men blindly 4- They follow what their desires and egos
interested in. That is starting point of roads of belief and denying/right religion and false
belief. One is worshipping to Allah the other is worshipping to desires of ego that it is defined
in our time as to follow the feelings. (v, III/1786)
Bestial (Savage) Corporeal Life: Allah shall admit those who have believed and done good
works into Gardens beneath which rivers flow; while the disbelievers take their comfort in
this life and eat even as the cattle eat, and the Fire is their final abode. (Quran, 47:12)
Unbelievers that they are men of pleasure, they strive to enjoy this worlds to the full and they
eat like the animals. That is they think this life is only bestial and carnal life and they do not
think the Owner of the Hereafter, they think only of their belly, thats why Allah is not their
Protector and the Hell is their dwelling.(v, VI/4384)
Mehmed Vehbi Efendi (1861-1949) prepared the study (Khulsatul-Beyn f Tefsril-Qurn)
between the years of 1911-1915. Some notes of Mehmed Vehbi Efendi on animal spirits:
Greed is fierce demand of a thing. The greedest community of the the world peoples is Jews.
(v, I/180; ((Bakara) 2:96) Envy is forbidden in every religion. Envy is the worst ethical
behaviour/sense. "Following of kuwwa-i nafsaniyya (carnal powers) puts the human kind in
calamities and following of hikmat and reason makes rested" (v, II/500)
Satan and Economic Life: "Satan is cursed (by Allah) and he ceased hoping of Allah's mercy.
'Whom Allah cursed, and he (Satan) said: "Surely I will take of your creatures (the man) an
appointed portion. And surely I will lead them astray, and surely I will arouse desires in them,
surely I will command them.." That is Satan said: they will follow me and they will be
deceived by my slinking whisper. Surely I keep a powerful desire of working and living in
this world in their heart as if they will stay in the world eternally. I make delayed their
repentance, I say to them that they will live in this world a long life. I encourage them to
follow their the demands of their egos and I show them some things that I decorate these
things that they are the causes of their insurrection to Allah. I increase their desire to worldly

goods. I also deceive them making prefered this world not Hereafter. I give them hope for
worldly ambition, I encourage for following carnal appetites."(v, III/1053, Chapter of Nisa,
4:119)
O My Friend! Dont Forget! Who can not win this world who can not win the Hereafter!
Let not the life of the world beguile you, nor let the deceiver beguile you in regard of Allah
(Quran, 31: 33) According to Fahruddin Razi, mankind are three kinds. The first kind incline
himself/herself to this world, and the worldly life gives him/her pride thats why he/she does
not busy with reaching the consent of Allah and to work for the Hereafter. The second group
does not tend to the world their own accords but Satan deceives them with his misguidings.
Satan decorates the world and illegitimate tastes of this world and shows new targets and
material expectations and says: You should not say this is forbidden for us by God, you
should earn for this world. Because who can not earn for this world who also can not earn for
his Hereafter. You should do all of your struggle to this world. The third group (of men) is
they are not deceived by the world and the Satan. They are esteemed in the presence of
Allah.(XI/4339)
Their Greeds and Egos Destroyed Them. Surely We have put on their necks yokes reaching
unto the chins, so that they are made stiff-necked (Quran, 35:8) Fakhruddin Razi and Hazin
note that the (other) meaning of yokes that were put on necks of disbelievers is their fierce
desires, their greeds and covetous, their tendency to the ornaments of the world and to follow
their sensual desires, lusts of the flesh (to accept the voices/demands of egos) The meaning of
the verse may be understood that: Because of they spend their willpowers to deny, We put on
their necks yokes that these yokes are greeds, covetous, to follow their carnal appetites, thats
why they can not move their necks to the sides, they can only look at their demands of egos,
their eyes can not see anything, their minds can not think anything. They only think
themselves.(XI/4609) These men are that type that George Orwell expresses in his famous
work published in 1937, The Road to Wigan Pier a kind of walking stomach. (Orwell,
2001, 184)
Fears of Social Breakdown As Gambling Explodes in Itay. A news at the last days of 2013,
points how uncontrolled animal spirits give big harms to individuals and society that AkerlofShiller do not mention this, as a problem:
Pavia, Italy, renowned for its universities and a celebrated Renaissance
monastery, this Lombardy town about 25 miles south of Milan has in recent years
earned another, more dubious, distinction: the gambling capital of Italy. A cafe
owner who wants his gambling machines removed. Slot machines and video
lottery terminals, known as V.L.T.s, can be found all over in coffee bars and
tobacco shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop shops and shopping malls, not to
mention 13 dedicated gambling halls. By some counts, there is one slot machine
or V.L.T. for every 104 of the citys 68,300 residents. Critics blame the
concentration of the machines for an increase in chronic gambling and debt,
bankruptcies, depression, domestic violence and broken homes recorded by
social service workers in Pavia. But in many ways, Pavia is merely the most
extreme example of the spread of gambling throughout Italy since lawmakers

significantly relaxed regulation of the gambling industry a decade ago. In

that time, Italy has become the largest gambling market in Europe , and the
fourth largest in the world after the United States, Japan and Macau,

according to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants, which tracks gambling.

Now, some Italians, in Pavia and elsewhere, say they have had enough. In
October, Lombardy became the sixth region to pass legislation intended to
curb gambling and help addicts. Dozens of municipalities have also drafted
measures to limit gambling, such as reducing opening hours. The
explosion of gambling is devastating the territory, said Simon Feder, a
psychologist who founded a no slot protest movement in Pavia that aims
to ban the machines from public spaces. It is an anti-economy that
impoverishes because it doesnt spread money around, it just gobbles it up.

With the economy still weak, spending on gambling, like other consumer
spending, shrank this year for the first time, but it was still projected to
reach about $115 billion for 2013. On average, one in every eight dollars
spent by an Italian family goes toward gambling, four times more than 15
years ago, said Maurizio Fiasco, a sociologist at a national commission that
combats usury. Residents of Pavia province, situated in a wealthy region,
spend about $4,124 a year on gambling, more than double the national
average of about $1,650, according to a report issued in December by the
gambling news agency Agimeg.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/29/world/europe/fears-of-social-breakdown-asgambling-explodes-in-italy.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&hp

Conclusion. Islamic consumer culture and functions of heart on that culture should be
studied vastly. Psychological aspects on consumption (addiction, obesity, extravagance) can
be controlled by Islamic education. Detailed anecdots from the economic behaviors of the life
of the Prophet Muhammad (as the best example for humanity) should be taught in the schools
and should be explained in the media to the peoples of the world that He and the other
prophets that their lives are mentioned in Quran, that they controlled their egos.

Akat Asaf Sava, Kapitalizmin Gelecei, (daily) Vatan, 10.12.2013

http://haber.gazetevatan.com/Haber/591123/4/Yazarlar
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printing, New Jersey: Princeton University Pres.
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Grdoan Nazif, Komnizm ld Kapiatlizm de ld, (daily) Yeni afak, 17.12.2013,
http://yenisafak.com.tr/yazarlar/NazifGurdogan/komunizm-oldu-kapitalizm-de-oldu/44243
Krugman Paul (1995), Peddling prosperity: economic sense and nonsense in the age of
diminished expectations, New York: W.W. Norton&Company, Inc
Mehmed Vehbi Efendi (1966-1969). Hulsatul-Beyn F Tefsril Kurn. I-XV. stanbul:

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Dal Neriyat.
Uzunolu Nureddin, zek Ali, Topuzolu Tevfik Rd, Maksudolu Mehmet (1992), The
Holy Quran With English Translation, stanbul: lmi Neriyat.
Moreton Bethany (2010) http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/10/brightideas/Harvardexpertsofferideastogetthenationbackontrack
Redhouse James (1998) Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary. 16th Edition, stanbul: Sev
Matbaaclk ve Yaynclk.
Shiv, Baba and Alexander Fedorikhin (1999). Heart and Mind in Conflict: The Interplay
of Affect and Cognition in Consumer Decision Making. Journal of Consumer Research, 26,
278-292.

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