Death or (um … ) Death
Apparently the ancient Babylonians would, at the start of each year, promise to pay off their debts and return stuff that they’d borrowed, like the lawnmower (or, as we would refer to it, the neighbor’s goat). As we saw in On Incentives, Agency and Aqueducts they had good reason to be cautious as the punishment for theft was death. Although, to be fair, the punishment for everything in Ancient Babylonia was death. What they lacked in imagination they made up for in consistency.
These days we have less strict incentives to keep to our New Year Resolutions, but would probably find ourselves wealthier if we could stick to a few simple rules. The essence of being a psychologically aware investor is self-control, and what could be less modern and more ancient than that?
