Debt-for-Nature Swaps: Solution or Scam?
Are debt-for-nature swaps—forgiving debt in exchange for investments in the environment—an innovative approach to debt relief or a form of recolonization?
Debt-Trap Diplomacy
How justified are recent claims that China has been buying significant quantities of debt to undermine the sovereignty of African nations?
The Debtor’s Blues: Music and Forced Labor
Debt peonage is often associated with agricultural labor, but in the early twentieth century, Black musicians found themselves trapped in its exploitative cycle.
How We All Got in Debt
Consumer debt shapes American lives so thoroughly that it seems eternal and immortal, but it’s actually relatively new to the financial world.
Debt Forgiveness and Jubilee 2000
Erasing student loans is a hot topic of conversation now. In the 1990s, debt forgiveness was an international movement.
The Birth of the Modern American Debt Collector
In the 19th century, farm loans changed from a matter between associates into an impersonal, bureaucratic exchange.
How Credit Reporting Agencies Got Their Power
Early credit reporting companies urged people to “Treat their credit as a sacred trust” and argued that keeping a good credit record was a moral concern.
Debtors’ Prisons, Class, and Patriotism in 18th Century Ireland
In a paper for Eighteenth-Century Ireland, Martyn J. Powell discusses the politics that seem to have limited the use of debtors' prisons in Ireland.