The wife came home from work the other day and said I might be interested in something she heard on NPR. Yup. The Academic Minute of 7 September 2022. The topic: Debt amnesty in ancient times. The speaker: Eva von Dassow of the University of Minnesota.
Highlights from her NPR minute:
- [In ancient times] it was customary to cancel non-commercial debts from time to time.
- Like Americans today, the people of the ancient Middle East went into debt to meet living expenses...
- [Debt amnesty], first recorded around 2400 BC in Sumer, is widely attested in ancient Mesopotamia.
- It was routinely triggered by the death of a ruler: his successor would raise a golden torch and proclaim the cancellation of debts, as part of his duty to establish justice and equity in his land. The biblical program for regular debt cancellation builds on this practice.
- In
the ancient world, such decrees functioned to restore socioeconomic
balance – and the tax base – enough that the cycle of borrowing to
survive could start over.
1 comment:
I finally found a link:
https://www.aacu.org/podcasts/academicminute/2022-09-eva-von-dassow-university-of-minnesota-an-amargi-for-america
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