In this episode of his "Thinking Out Loud" series, Double D examines an article from Jacobin which interviews Michael Hudson, a professor in economics who makes the case for a contemporary use of the ancient practice of Debt Jubilee.
Double D lays out the nature of the Debt Crisis, citing statistics which note over $1.7 Trillion in student loan debt, $14+ Trillion in personal debt, and a government which borrows exorbitant sums from foreign powers to finance its runaway military industrial complex and corporate subsidies.
Double D examines what has created such a debt crises, pointing out that the ballooning debt is a result of a declining social wage, which has led the American working class into debt peonage as they struggle to afford the illusion of the American Dream. He touches on that fact that wealth inequality and debt are intertwined, a compounding snowball effect where upon wealth inequality produces debt, and debt produces more wealth inequality as indentured working people owe more and more of their value to the top 1%.
Double D goes on to say that America's double debt crises: ballooning personal debt as well as an engorged national debt, were the exact "pre-existing" conditions which led to hyper inflation in the German Weimar Republic from 1921-1923; he warns that if this debt bubble were to pop, life as we think of it today would come to an end.
Double D reads more excerpts from the Jacobin article, stating that ancient civilizations were keenly aware of the destabilizing effects of debt; noting that it often led to economic crises, political polarization, and a concentration of wealth, power, and eventually military might into the hands of ruling creditor class. He goes on to explain that this was the case in the Roman Republic, which eventually led to its becoming an Empire, where a handful of Roman aristocrats owned all the wealth while everyone else was pushed into serfdom.
Double D makes the case that America has followed down the path of the Romans; stating that the American Republic has fallen into the hands of creditors who use the government as the administrative organ of their interests. He ends the video by dispelling negative connotations around the notion of a "planned economy" noting that every economy throughout history has been planned. He states that it is only a matter of who we decide does the planning, asking if we will have an economy planned for and by the creditors, or an economy planned for and by working people everywhere.
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