A Year of Jubilee! (Repudiate the Debt)

[Joanne98]

Posted by Rick Williams on Mon, 01/19/2009 - 6:12pm in BreakTheMatrix
It's become profoundly obvious that national debt cancellation is the essential step to restore economic prosperity in America (and worldwide). Globalist bankers recoil in horror at the prospect, but in fact the framework for repudiation/forgiveness of debt has a long and storied history in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Let's take a look.

It begins with the Biblical Year of Jubilee, a periodic (and complete) economic overhaul of the economy as outlined in Leviticus 25-26. During the time of Jubilee (every seventh year), there is a Sabbath period of rest for land and people, and a release of persons enslaved by debt. The broader Jubilee concept in Leviticus 25 builds on the Sabbath seventh year debt release and rest cycle outlined in Deuteronomy 15 and Exodus 21:2 and 23:10-11, and culminates in a fiftieth year "super--release" for purposes of restoration of community and freedom from debt bondage. "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, and unto the inhabitants thereof . . ." Indeed-- these words ring out today, just as they have down through the ages.

The Jubilee framework is non--negotiable in the Bible, and the demands of Jubilee remain outstanding until fulfilled-- regardless of chronological time. Leviticus 26:34-35 says the land will take her Sabbath even if humans choose to ignore God's word, and Israel was regularly called to account if the demands of the Sabbath and Jubilee texts were neglected by the people. As Tim Atwater explains in "Debt Cancellation: Biblical Norm, Not Exception:"

"In the Biblical view, debt is always the responsibility of creditors as well as debtors. In the ancient Near East, even pagan kings periodically cancelled debts to allow the poor a measure of respite from harsh conditions. The Biblical mandate goes much further, reordering the whole economy around the need for periodic cancellation of debt and restoration of community."

More from Atwater:

http://www.breakthematrix.com/content/A-Year-of-Jubilee-Repudiate-the-Debt

It's the only way out!

[GliderGuider]

1. K&R - It's time to push the big red reset button on the global economy.

Who knows, it could actually happen by default if things crack hard and fast enough.

[Joanne98]

2. True

[AnneD]

3. I don't think we qualify for Jubilee...

but banks and credit card companies need to be taken to the regulation wood shed. How ever I am not opposed to Jubilee and think many countries-esp some in Africa-need Jubilee (again with some reform measures.

[Joanne98]

14. Africa got Jubliee because the banks loaned their corrupt politicians money!

I think we qualify.

[AnneD]

16. I'd like to try some

tar soap, stiff wire brush and some elbow grease before we resort to Jubilee, but if things deteriorate more the I see no reason why not. I think with adjustment and cram downs-we can still make it.

[HamdenRice]

4. Yeah, stiff 800,000,000 Chinese peasants and workers out of their savings. Yeah, that's fair.

Banks are intermediaries. However badly they function, however many fees they add for their services, in the end, they are just intermediaries.

"Forgiving" debt means confiscating savings, and for the last several decades much of the world's savings have been accumulated by Chinese peasants and workers, as well as their Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean and Indonesian counterparts.

Imagine how "just" and "fair" that would be -- telling some rice farmer who has managed to stash away a few thousand dollars for old age and sickness by working 4,000 hours a year in the rice paddy that his savings have disappeared because American consumers want to be "forgiven" their credit card debt.

[.... callchet ....]

5. stiff 800,000,000 Chinese peasants and workers out of their savings

Do they have saving? The USA peasants don't have savings.

[Statistical]

9. China has highest saving rate in the world

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/08/differences_in_.html

Reason China buys so much US debt (t-bills) is because their country SAVES.

When they save the money needs to be placed somewhere secure in order for the banks to pay a secure interest rate.
A portion becomes US T-bills.

[.... callchet ....]

11. I didn't see anything in that link

that said anything about the rate of savings for the peasants. In fact it did say, "By contrast, poor people in China mostly view their personal situation as transitional. There is no shame in being poor in China if one reflects that one's children or grandchildren will be successful"

But the point is that someone is going to suffer, so reduce the amount of suffering.

[Statistical]

7. No fair using logic. It is "free money time".

I agree with you though.

Also what some fail to understand is what a reset would do the the value of the $.
Instantly US would become a third world nation begging for some IMF loans.

Any remaining capital in the US (among the evil rich) would flow overseas.
The risk of a giant reset would make any terms unfavorable.

With no access to local or global credit marks the US would likely drift into a 20-30 year depression.
Not severe. Not a "Great Depression" but a long slow death as companies flee the risky US to other countries (Europe & Asia).

Ask Argentina how their great debt erase worked out.

[.... callchet ....]

10. The option is

third world status anyways. There always can't be profitable results. Right now is picking would you rather get hit by a ball bat or a sledge hammer.
Any solution on its own can't sustain scrutiny. But that is no reason to not act.

[GliderGuider]

12. Frankly, I don't think there are any overall solutions to the global predicament.

At least none that can be rationally planned and implemented with any real assurance that they'll work. We've never been here before, so history is unlikely to provide much good guidance.

Thinking about Jubilee is just as wishful as hoping that wind turbines will replace the oil and coal whose emissions are slowly cooking us. It's the kind of magical thinking that people are prone to when faced with an insoluble dilemma (as opposed to a soluble problem).

We are faced with a convergence of interlocking problems in three arenas: energy (Peak Oil has been delayed by the depression, not canceled), ecology (climate chaos, the death of ocean ecosystems, rapid extinctions, loss of fresh water and arable land) and economics. Any one of these problems would be a bear to solve, even in isolation -- after all, look at the variety of fixes proposed for the financial problem, some mutually contradictory, all veiled in mists of uncertainty. Any one of these problems has the potential to lay long-term hurt on the human race, but they are all coming home to roost at the same time, over the next decade. The interactions between them (as in, fixing one may worsen another) means that the convergence will make it exponentially harder to avoid an outright collapse of at least some of our systems.

A situation this desperate short-circuits a lot of critical thinking and makes the lure of magical solutions like Jubilee irresistible.

As we have done in the past though, we will probably just muddle along, trying things out as they occur to us and adapting to whatever outcome results.

[.... callchet ....]

13. Most of the pictures I see on TV showing the wind turbines

don't have the blades turning.!! I would do something about that if I was T boone ! The bottom line is there is enough production capability to feed, house, and take care of the basic needs of the whole world. The problem is trying to convince the gods that that is okay to do. You don't have to sell everything and make a profit off it. The only point of contention is whether the leaders will be benevolent or self centered. I was watching the hearings this morning, no hope ! !

[Joanne98]

15. I'm not just talking about CC debt. I'm talking about ALL of it!

And frankly, I don't give a damn about the Chinese! If you've been listening to the Geithner hearings, they intend to ROB Social Security to pay off the debt. What about OUR citizen's old age pensions? They already lost their 401k's. Now SS and Medicare too? Just so the thieves at the top can live like the Gods. Sorry. SCREW THEM ALL! Including the Chinese. And the Japanese TOO!

[.... callchet ....]

6. World bankruptcy

This is the only solution. When human rights were non existent, they did this in historic times. There is no other solution. There is no nice way to tell the wealthy that they are going to have to share the wealth.

[.... callchet ....]

8. Falling on deaf ears

Every time I have posted this solution I have only got about three replies. I have written about abolishing all debt and Glider Guider first posted about " Jubilee " People don't care about human rights unless it is effecting them. It is a shame that it is perceived as such a radical solution. We didn't have a problem dropping the Atom bomb. That was surly a more radical solution to a problem.

[SlowDownFast]

17. Good point, callchet. n/t

[Joanne98]

18. Next time you post one PM me. I'll rec for ya!

:hi:

[bhikkhu]

19. Bankruptcy is usually a simple admission of reality

I'd say looking at trillions in debt and an empty cupboard, "jubilee" does have a nice festive ring to it!

[Joanne98]

20. Yep!