..and Forgive Them Their Debts: Lending, Foreclosure and Redemption from Bronze Age Finance to the Jubilee Year (Tyranny of Debt)

Deep writing about economics and religion.

The good: Michael Hudson has meticulously researched and analyzed the evolution of debt and the importance of debt jubilees to restore the balance between working people and the oligarch class. Without debt jubilee for ordinary folks (although not for business deals as even in ancient civilizations a line was drawn that jubilees were not for commercial debts) the inexorable math of compound interest will funnel more and more wealth into the holds of the creditor class/Wall Street/rentier class/oligarchs while ordinary citizens get poorer and poorer, as we see today thanks to the neoliberal politics of austerity where the banks get bailed out while ordinary citizens foot the bill.The less good: Michael Hudson is not a literary stylist and his prose requires close attention to work through. A co-writer or very good editor to sharpen up the text would definitely help. This isn't a book you can plow through like a beach novel, let's just say that.

I've been working on the subject of Jubilee for many, many years. I focused on Leviticus 25:8-13. Michael Hudson has helped fill in all the necessary blanks for me. Now, I know how I want to do Jubilee Worldwide, starting with the USA. Isaiah 61:1-3 and other references, including the Hammurabi Codes, complete my understanding on these matters.We can start by eliminating student and personal debt. Then, we can selectively cover all necessary debt forgiveness, including, especially Third World and emerging countries' debts.

It documents the very origins of credit and debt systems emerging in the Middle East.

this is a very important topic for current financial industry and the economy - The author reveals so much about the real economy of ancient Mesopotamia that is ignored by establishment economists of all the main 'schools' of theory today - especially about the reality of 'barter' and role of credit, banking and debt.

Dr. Hudson is the best modern day writer explaining just what exactly money is, who controls it, the difference between money and debt, and many outdated economic concepts that are enslaving us all, worldwide, into a collapsing reality that doesn't work any more. Well written, understandable. Refreshing

In contrast to some of the other reviewers here, I actually find the layout and writing in this book to be very good, But MY problem with this book is the physical quality of the pages themselves, which permit yellow highlighting ink to bleed through somewhat and dampen the reverse side of the pages such that I have to wait for the page to dry before I can continue reading and highlighting on tge reverse side of each page.And the reason I have to highlight so much is that I mentally lose my place otherwise; I also have to make marks and notes with a red gel pen as well, and so book pages must be able to handle these things, and all my books usually can handle all this, but not this one, so much.

"...and forgive them their debts" is a sprawling history of debt and, sporadically, debt-relief in the Near East, culminating in the ministry of Jesus bar Miriam.The thesis' centre is the exponential function. This was taught to children in the ancient Near East as it is taught to children today: to impress upon the next generation what "compound interest" means. What it means for the working class, historically, has been destitution. As Hudson notes, at a certain point debts can't be paid. So they shan't be paid. HOW they shan't be paid is then the question: often, it's bloody revolution.Near Eastern societies, mostly Semitic because that's what we have a record for, solved this by sporadic misharum edicts: the palace collected grain debts, and forgave them. Silver debts, swapped between merchants, the palace would leave alone. The aim was to keep able-bodied men on the farm so they could be called upon to fight in wars. Wars cannot be fought well with a sickly indigent urban underclass, especially if that underclass resents the palace.The bulk of this book is that history, part III over chs. 8-21. Part IV is an interpretation of the Bible, chs. 22-26; followed by a two-chapter afterclap, in a history of the Byzantine state under the "Macedonian" dynasty and its struggles with the dynatoi. Preceding it all over parts I-II is a summary of the argument, most of which I had to admit confused me, such that I will have to retry it. The concluding chapter 29 by contrast was succinct and convincing.The book has its heroes and villains. Basil I, Romanos I, and Basil II are heroes; Leo VI and empress Zoe, villains. Everyone is judged by how they handle debt, against how Hammurabi and Hudson would handle it. The Saite kings p. 180 would be heroes too except that the Kushites knocked them out too soon. The author is further not above settling professional scores with other economic historians, pp. 266-9. Although if he's accurately quoting those scholars, those scholars deserve it.Organisationally, I would fault this book by not marking its "part one", "part two" etc where they occur in the text. I just see these sections in the contents. As the facts go, I found little wrong with them. I noted a few solecisms like calling "Theophanes Continuatus" a "chronicler" as if this wasn't, in fact, the name of the chronicle - the continuation of Theophanes'. Also, the textual analysis of the Bible isn't up to date; the references are solidly 1960s-80s. If one is to discuss the Holiness Code p. 211, one should now refer to Israel Knohl's "Sanctuary of Silence" (1996). And I wonder if by the [hypothetic] "P" document p. 194 the author means "D" or even "E".As to the index, the holiness code isn't in it. So it's incomplete.The sheer volume of data brought here is impressive. For that alone I deem this book essential to anyone who would venture an economic history of the Ancient Near East or of peak Byzantium. It should further be the model for anyone writing economic histories afield or, for that matter, policy-papers in the present.

Important work that helps explain the root cause of a lot of our current inequality issues.

This is an important book which offer a clear look in to a grumbling present surging out of the cumulative historical errors of our past

Excelente livro! Boa leitura aqui no Brasil.

This is a great book for anyone who wants to find out how the greed for money has enslaved an entire planet, and for so long!. I can see why the word "sins" replaced the word "debts". It's all about power. There is no money in sins (its original meaning was "to miss the mark" ("repent" originally meant to have a change of mind) but there is in debts and our global creditors didn't miss the mark there. The "sanctity of debt" is an oxymoron par excellence. Many people still don't understand where money comes from or who controls its supply.

Don't attempt this book unless you are willing to admit that evrything you thought you knew about the subject was wrong. Mind blowing but very good for you.