David Graeber: "DEBT: The First 5,000 Years" | Talks at Google
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DEBT: The First 5,000 Years While the "national debt" has been the concern du jour of many economists, commentators and politicians, little attention is ever paid to the historical significance of debt. For thousands of years, the struggle between rich and poor has largely taken the form of conflicts between creditors and debtors—of arguments about the rights and wrongs of interest payments, debt peonage, amnesty, repossession, restitution, the sequestering of sheep, the seizing of vineyards, and the selling of debtors' children into slavery. By the same token, for the past five thousand years, popular insurrections have begun the same way: with the ritual destruction of debt records—tablets, papyri, ledgers; whatever form they might have taken in any particular time and place. Enter anthropologist David Graeber's Debt: The First 5,000 Years (July, ISBN 978-1-933633-86-2), which uses these struggles to show that the history of debt is also a history of morality and culture. In the throes of the recent economic crisis, with the very defining institutions of capitalism crumbling, surveys showed that an overwhelming majority of Americans felt that the country's banks should not be rescued—whatever the economic consequences—but that ordinary citizens stuck with bad mortgages should be bailed out. The notion of morality as a matter of paying one's debts runs deeper in the United States than in almost any other country. Beginning with a sharp critique of economics (which since Adam Smith has erroneously argued that all human economies evolved out of barter), Graeber carefully shows that everything from the ancient work of law and religion to human notions like "guilt," "sin," and "redemption," are deeply influenced by ancients debates about credit and debt. It is no accident that debt continues to fuel political debate, from the crippling debt crises that have gripped Greece and Ireland, to our own debate over whether to raise the debt ceiling. Debt, an incredibly captivating narrative spanning 5,000 years, puts these crises into their full context and illuminates one of the thorniest subjects in all of history. ABOUT THE AUTHOR David Graeber teaches anthropology at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is the author of Towards an Anthropological Theory of Value, Lost People, and Possibilities: Essays on Hierarchy, Rebellion, and Desire. This talk was hosted by Boris Debic on behalf of the Authors@Google program.
Comments
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Boring
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Dumb ass
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DRINK THE DAMN COFFEE
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you look like Tim Robbins from Jacobs ladder
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Royal law jubilee no debt in heaven every 7 years
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Apparently and unfortunately great scholars not always make great speakers. :(
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The backlash has begun. Groups like Anonymous are already striking at the heart of financial systems: http://www.anonews.co/anonymous-hackers-shut-down-federal-reserve-bank/
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The thing about forgiving all debts across the board is that those who run up the most debt prior to the wiping of the slate, will start the "post-slate wiping era" at an advantage.
For example, Person A acquires assets on credit, and then gets to keep those assets worth $x compared to Person B who could have, but chose not to acquire those assets because they didn't want to over leverage themselves.
The wiping of the slate, giving that Person A & B had similar net worths, would put Person A at an advantage over Person B in both absolute and relative wealth. -
oh dear......I know how brilliant this guy is, but just cannot help feeling annoyed by how he talks....
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I bet Graeber has read some Nietzsche and his analysis of debt's role in morality
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A guy to amaze, smart as hell, intriguing work... but, yeah, after the 11th time he picked up the cup (which sounds empty when he puts it down, though he doesn't drink: I was counting aloud after the 4th time) I had to lower my laptop lid so I wouldn't get further distracted from his words.
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Around 31:00 he basically explains how legal systems emerging out of violence probably created the first things akin to "money" and "currency" and how this subsequently also explains the strong moral power of debt itself.
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How about the State lending money at 0% interest and selling those loans at 60% of their value
i.e. loan 100 000$ to a guy to buy a house and sell the right to collect that 100 000$(no more and no less) for 60 000$? Then use the money for another loan. -
I just finished reading this book, which is a gigantic series of tangential historical anecdotes loosely tied to the concept of debt. Unfortunately, this lecture is just a microcosm of the book. Instead of bombarding the reader/listener with historical facts, I wish there were an underlying theme of directionality on the evolution of debt through time. If not that, then I wish his thoughts were a bit more organized.
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The development country have experience more evident between anti America such democracy news from untill communist agree between them as provider incorrectly or absurd all the time when come the religious present on take and give like israely and America state, We comment where taken form how and why Jesus doesnt already and muhammadean as rich people. so long
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I pick things up and I put things down!
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Today have no cancellation but the central bank will lower the interest rate so there can be more debt.
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credit = debt
If there is too much debt that just means there is too much credit !
Since so few of us seem to be hording money\credit there must be someone who has a lot of it. -
TAKE A SIP!
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44:57
And that's why prostitution is indeed the oldest business^^
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