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Common Dreams – Bailout ‘Of The People, By The People’ Exposes Bankers’ Greed – 13 November 2012
Posted on November 13, 2012 by lucas2012infos | Leave a comment
(Lucas: This is an example of people thinking in 3D creative solutions for the financial injustice and inequality.)
Coalition kicks off ‘Rolling Jubilee’ campaign to eliminate debt
- Common Dreams staff
A coalition of activists looking to build popular resistance to
predatory lending kicked off a new initiative, The Rolling Jubilee, to
challenge the status quo of debt collection by purchasing distressed
debts and then—rather than collecting on it—wiping the slate clean.
The Rolling Jubilee telethon will air Thursday, November 15 and can be
live streamed on rollingjubilee.org The Occupy offshoot, Strike Debt,
will hold a telethon and variety show called “The People’s Bailout” in
New York on Nov. 15 to raise money for the cause. For pennies on the
dollar ($32 for every $1), individuals or companies can buy distressed
debt—including student loans and outstanding medical bills—from lenders
if the borrower is either behind their payments or in default. Whereas
traditional debt collectors then hound the debtor to pay up, the Rolling
Jubilee is bunking the system by erasing the debt and, therefore,
liberating the debtor.
Rolling Jubilee, whose website went live on Monday, has already raised over $87,000 to abolish $1.7 million worth of debt. According
to writer and Jubilee organizer David Rees, the group has already
performed a test run on the debt market by spending $500 on distressed
debt, buying $14,000 worth of outstanding loans and pardoning the
debtors.
Their stated goal is to raise $50,000 to buy up (and eliminate) $1
million worth of debt, focusing primarily on communities hardest hit by
the recession. However, what makes the campaign especially clever is the
inevitable exposure of lenders who may refuse to participate. As
Charles Eisenstein writes in The Guardian:
If the lenders block debt cancellation even when it comes at no cost
to themselves (as they would have sold it at the same price to a
collection agency), they appear as a bunch of greedy, vindictive
Scrooges.
The problem of unpayable debts bedevils every corner of our financial
system – public, corporate, and personal. So far, the response of the
monetary and fiscal authorities to nearly every financial crisis has
been to bail out the creditors but not the debtors.
The Rolling Jubilee brings a different kind of solution into the
public consciousness. The next time a systemic crisis breaks, central
banks can rescue the banking system by once again buying the delinquent
loans – and then cancel them or reduce the amount borrowers owe.
A video
produced by Strike Debt to promote the scheme, declares: “We bailed-out
the banks and in return they turned their backs on us. We don’t owe
them anything, we owe each other everything. It’s time for a bail-out of
the people, by the people.”
Uploaded on 7 Novenber 2012 by StrikeDebt
www.commondreams.org link to original article
Thanks to: http://lucas2012infos.wordpress.com
Posted on November 13, 2012 by lucas2012infos | Leave a comment
(Lucas: This is an example of people thinking in 3D creative solutions for the financial injustice and inequality.)
Coalition kicks off ‘Rolling Jubilee’ campaign to eliminate debt
- Common Dreams staff
A coalition of activists looking to build popular resistance to
predatory lending kicked off a new initiative, The Rolling Jubilee, to
challenge the status quo of debt collection by purchasing distressed
debts and then—rather than collecting on it—wiping the slate clean.
The Rolling Jubilee telethon will air Thursday, November 15 and can be
live streamed on rollingjubilee.org The Occupy offshoot, Strike Debt,
will hold a telethon and variety show called “The People’s Bailout” in
New York on Nov. 15 to raise money for the cause. For pennies on the
dollar ($32 for every $1), individuals or companies can buy distressed
debt—including student loans and outstanding medical bills—from lenders
if the borrower is either behind their payments or in default. Whereas
traditional debt collectors then hound the debtor to pay up, the Rolling
Jubilee is bunking the system by erasing the debt and, therefore,
liberating the debtor.
Rolling Jubilee, whose website went live on Monday, has already raised over $87,000 to abolish $1.7 million worth of debt. According
to writer and Jubilee organizer David Rees, the group has already
performed a test run on the debt market by spending $500 on distressed
debt, buying $14,000 worth of outstanding loans and pardoning the
debtors.
Their stated goal is to raise $50,000 to buy up (and eliminate) $1
million worth of debt, focusing primarily on communities hardest hit by
the recession. However, what makes the campaign especially clever is the
inevitable exposure of lenders who may refuse to participate. As
Charles Eisenstein writes in The Guardian:
If the lenders block debt cancellation even when it comes at no cost
to themselves (as they would have sold it at the same price to a
collection agency), they appear as a bunch of greedy, vindictive
Scrooges.
The problem of unpayable debts bedevils every corner of our financial
system – public, corporate, and personal. So far, the response of the
monetary and fiscal authorities to nearly every financial crisis has
been to bail out the creditors but not the debtors.
The Rolling Jubilee brings a different kind of solution into the
public consciousness. The next time a systemic crisis breaks, central
banks can rescue the banking system by once again buying the delinquent
loans – and then cancel them or reduce the amount borrowers owe.
A video
produced by Strike Debt to promote the scheme, declares: “We bailed-out
the banks and in return they turned their backs on us. We don’t owe
them anything, we owe each other everything. It’s time for a bail-out of
the people, by the people.”
Uploaded on 7 Novenber 2012 by StrikeDebt
www.commondreams.org link to original article
Thanks to: http://lucas2012infos.wordpress.com
