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Sunday 5 June 2022

Debt Forgiveness Will Free The Poor

Every Christian is aware that God, through Jesus, forgives our debts. But not every Christian is aware of how powerfully the Bible teaches the literal forgives of debts. 

Michael Hudson is an economist who is aware of this. The beauty of debt forgiveness is that it frees the poor from burdens they cannot bear, unlocks economic activity enslaved previously to interest, and preserves your people in their land, a basic necessity for a stable society. Hudson explains:

"Out of habit, American economists worry about federal debt. But federal debt can be redeemed by the Federal Reserve printing the money with which to retire the bonds. The debt problem rests with individuals, companies, and state and local governments. They have no printing press.

We have explained that the indebtedness of the population means there is little discretionary income with which to drive the economy. The offshoring of middle class jobs lowered incomes, and after paying debt service—mortgage interest, car payments, credit card interest, student loan debt—Americans’ pockets are empty.

This situation has been worsened by Covid lockdowns. In the US the federal government has sent out a few Covid payments to help keep people’s heads above water as they face expenses without income. The financial press refers to these Covid checks as “fiscal stimulus,” but there is no stimulus. The Covid checks do not come close to replacing the missing wages, salaries and business profits from lockdowns.

Corporations have indebted themselves and impaired their capitalization by borrowing money with which to repurchase their stock. This has built up their debt in the face of stagnant or declining consumer discretionary income.

We propose to deal with the debt crisis by forgiving debts as was done in ancient times. Our basic premise is that debts that cannot be paid won’t be. Widespread foreclosures and evictions would further worsen the distribution of income and wealth and further constrain the ability of the economy to grow. Writing debt down to levels that can be serviced would clear the decks tor a real recovery. Income that would be siphoned off in debt service would instead be available to purchase new goods and services."

Somehow debt forgiveness has become a left issue that Christian conservatives reject. But this is silly, our Lord taught it in the gospel  the Old Testament had it as a central tenet. 

Hear Michael out, read his position, study his arguments. He is sharing with us lessons from thousands of years of ancient practice that enabled fragile civilisations to flourish in harsh environments. He is reminding us of teachings our own Lord believed and taught as well. 

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