Going Into Debt

Introduction

Social Text Collective

The financial crisis of 2008 and the subsequent “Great Recession” have often been seen as crises of debt and credit. Political economists have attempted to unravel the financial instruments — the subprime mortgages and collateralized debt obligations — at the … Continue reading “Introduction”

Working Lives in Debt

Eli Jelly-Schapiro

  How does debt act as a tool of labor discipline? As a catalyst of capitalist accumulation? As a method of labor degradation? I want to approach these questions by imagining a series of three lives, working lives, working lives … Continue reading “Working Lives in Debt”

Environment in Debt

sigma colon

  Every winter millions of monarch butterflies migrate from the United States and Canada to forests in central Mexico. The sight of their arrival stops people and traffic not only by virtue of its uniqueness, but also due to the … Continue reading “Environment in Debt”

A Debt Remembered

van truong

  “Without memory, there is no debt.  Put another way: without story, there is no debt.”[1]Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth (Toronto, ON: House of Anansi Press, 2008) p. 2.   That’s how Margaret Atwood put … Continue reading “A Debt Remembered”

Dreamworlds of Debt

amina el-annan

  The German philosopher Ernst Bloch in his massive tome The Spirit of Utopia, devoted an entire section to what he called ” Little Daydreams”. Overflowing each page are mystical and impressionistic descriptions of phenomena like wishful thinking, social utopias, … Continue reading “Dreamworlds of Debt”

Debt Dossier

richard dienst

It’s important to begin with a reminder of the reasons everybody is talking about debt these days. The threat of “debt crisis” hangs over the world economy. The United States “has been living beyond its means,” Greece “cannot pay its … Continue reading “Debt Dossier”

Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity

Social Text Collective

Michael Truscello’s new documentary, Capitalism Is The Crisis: Radical Politics in the Age of Austerity, which is excerpted above, can be viewed in its entirety here. It features commentary by Chris Hedges, Michael Hardt, and many more.

Making $58,412.10 of Student Debt Disappear into Thin Air

Social Text Collective

My student debt for a MFA from Bard College is currently $58,412.10. My attempt is to use the internet to get 100,000 people to mail the Sallie Mae corporation (who administers my loans), a check for 58 cents. And that by doing this, the collective activity of these small gestures will not only relieve my debt, but will overwhelm and flood their P.O. box in Atlanta, Georgia.

The Free Money Movement

Social Text Collective

The Aaron Burr Society is dedicated to exposing the myths of Free Markets and Free Trade with absurdist, conceptual artwork operating in the public sphere.