Download or read book Payback written by Margaret Atwood and published by House of Anansi. This book was released on 2008 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores debt as a central historical component of religion, literature, and societal structure, while examining the idea of humanity's debt to the natural world.

Download or read book Promissory Notes written by Robin Truth Goodman and published by Lever Press. This book was released on 2018-01-03 with total page 90 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is no doubt that the beginning of the twenty-first century was marked by crises of debt. Less well known is that literature played a historical role in defining and teaching debt to the public. Promissory Notes: On the Literary Conditions of Debt addresses how neoliberal finance has depended upon a historical linking of geopolitical inequality and financial representation that positions the so-called “Third World” as negative value, or debt. Starting with an analysis of Anthony Trollope’s novel, The Eustace Diamonds, Goodman shows how colonized spaces came to inhabit this negative value. Promissory Notes argues that the twentieth-century continues to apply literary innovations in character, subjectivity, temporal and spatial representation to construct debt as the negative creation of value not only in reference to objects, but also houses, credit cards, students, and, in particular, “Third World” geographies, often leading to crisis. Yet, late twentieth century and early twenty-first literary texts, such as Soyinka’s The Road and Ngugi’s Wizard of the Crow, address the negative space of the indebted world also as a critique of the financial take-over of the postcolonial developmental state. Looking to situations like the Puerto Rican debt crisis, Goodman demonstrates how financial discourse is articulated through social inequalities and how literature can both expose and contest the imposition of a morality of debt as a mode of anti-democratic control.

Download or read book Where Credit is Due written by Gregory Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Borrowing is a crucial source of financing for governments all over the world. If they get it wrong, then debt crises can bring progress to a halt. But if it's done right, investment happens and conditions improve. African countries are seeking calmer capital, to raise living standards and give their economies a competitive edge. The African debt landscape has changed radically in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Since the clean slate of extensive debt relief, states have sought new borrowing opportunities from international capital markets and emerging global powers like China. The new debt composition has increased risk, exacerbated by the 2020 coronavirus pandemic: richer countries borrowed at rock-bottom interest rates, while Africa faced an expensive jump in indebtedness. The escalating debt burden has provoked calls by the G20 for suspension of debt payments. But Africa's debt today is highly complex, and owed to a wider range of lenders. A new approach is needed, and could turn crisis into opportunity. Urgent action by both lenders and borrowers can reduce risk, while carefully preserving market access; and smart deployment of private finance can provide the scale of investment needed to achieve development goals and tackle the climate emergency.

Download or read book Between Debt and the Devil written by Adair Turner and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-02 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why our addiction to debt caused the global financial crisis and is the root of our financial woes Adair Turner became chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority just as the global financial crisis struck in 2008, and he played a leading role in redesigning global financial regulation. In this eye-opening book, he sets the record straight about what really caused the crisis. It didn’t happen because banks are too big to fail—our addiction to private debt is to blame. Between Debt and the Devil challenges the belief that we need credit growth to fuel economic growth, and that rising debt is okay as long as inflation remains low. In fact, most credit is not needed for economic growth—but it drives real estate booms and busts and leads to financial crisis and depression. Turner explains why public policy needs to manage the growth and allocation of credit creation, and why debt needs to be taxed as a form of economic pollution. Banks need far more capital, real estate lending must be restricted, and we need to tackle inequality and mitigate the relentless rise of real estate prices. Turner also debunks the big myth about fiat money—the erroneous notion that printing money will lead to harmful inflation. To escape the mess created by past policy errors, we sometimes need to monetize government debt and finance fiscal deficits with central-bank money. Between Debt and the Devil shows why we need to reject the assumptions that private credit is essential to growth and fiat money is inevitably dangerous. Each has its advantages, and each creates risks that public policy must consciously balance.

Download or read book The Value of Debt in Retirement written by Thomas J. Anderson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-03-16 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Increase the odds you won't run out of money in retirement – using debt! Conventional wisdom is wrong – being debt free in retirement may actually increase your risk. The Value of Debt in Retirement teaches you how incorporating debt into your retirement strategy may increase your return, lower your taxes and actually lower your risk. You read that right. If handled correctly, debt—that thing we've all been taught to avoid—can play an integral role in your life, especially in retirement. New York Times Best Selling Author and nationally acclaimed financial expert Tom Anderson shows you how to use the time tested strategies of the best companies and the ultra rich to retire comfortably, minimize taxes, buy the things you have always wanted to have and do the things you have always wanted to do. Thought provoking and against the grain, Anderson explains why your risk tolerance doesn't matter, why being debt free may actually increase your risk and why rushing to pay off your mortgage may be a financial disaster. Full of shocking revelations and tricks high- net-worth individuals have used for years, The Value of Debt in Retirement opens the world to a new approach to wealth management in retirement, one that factors in both sides of the balance sheet as an integrated ecosystem. Real-world case studies illustrate how informed debt strategies can lead to a happier, healthier retirement. See how an individual with a net worth of more than $5 million can spend $20,000 per month - after taxes - and pay less than $5,000 per year in taxes, how it is possible to increase your rate of return by 50%, and how a lower risk portfolio with debt could increase the chances you do not run out of money. Specifically written to Baby Boomers, practical guides and checklists show how to use debt strategies to fund primary and secondary properties, refinance credit card debt, and finance hobbies, such as cars and boats and recreational vehicles. Additional guides show how you can help your children, help your parents and leave a bigger legacy for your heirs and favorite charities. Regardless of your net worth, The Value of Debt in Retirement provides tools to use to apply these concepts to your personal situation. There is no free lunch: the book delivers a balanced perspective focusing on the potential risks and benefits of the strategies discussed. A discussion on economic history highlights some of the shocks the economy may face and provides important warnings that you should factor into your retirement plan. Anderson not only shows that your life expectancy may be longer than you think, but also illustrates that many investors may be on track to average returns well under 4% for the next ten years – a potentially devastating combination. Irrespective of your beliefs about debt, The Value of Debt in Retirement proves risk is more important than return for retirees and provides suggestions on ways to minimize that risk. Not all debt is good and high levels of debt are bad. The Value of Debt in Retirement is about choosing the right debt, in the right amounts, at the right time. Perhaps most importantly, this book isn't for everybody. This book requires responsible actions. If you can't handle the responsibility associated with the ideas then this book then it isn't for you. If you need a rate of return under 3% from your investments then you may not need this book. But if you can handle the responsibility and if you need a return above 3%, this book may offer insights into the best (and potentially only) way to achieve your goals.

Download or read book Debt Updated and Expanded written by David Graeber and published by Melville House. This book was released on 2014-12-09 with total page 566 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in paperback, the updated and expanded edition: David Graeber’s “fresh . . . fascinating . . . thought-provoking . . . and exceedingly timely” (Financial Times) history of debt Here anthropologist David Graeber presents a stunning reversal of conventional wisdom: he shows that before there was money, there was debt. For more than 5,000 years, since the beginnings of the first agrarian empires, humans have used elaborate credit systems to buy and sell goods—that is, long before the invention of coins or cash. It is in this era, Graeber argues, that we also first encounter a society divided into debtors and creditors. Graeber shows that arguments about debt and debt forgiveness have been at the center of political debates from Italy to China, as well as sparking innumerable insurrections. He also brilliantly demonstrates that the language of the ancient works of law and religion (words like “guilt,” “sin,” and “redemption”) derive in large part from ancient debates about debt, and shape even our most basic ideas of right and wrong. We are still fighting these battles today without knowing it.

Download or read book In Defense of Public Debt written by Barry Eichengreen and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-11 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A dive into the origins, management, and uses and misuses of sovereign debt through the ages. Public debts have exploded to levels unprecedented in modern history as governments responded to the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis. Their dramatic rise has prompted apocalyptic warnings about the dangers of heavy debtsabout the drag they will place on economic growth and the burden they represent for future generations. In Defense of Public Debt offers a sharp rejoinder to this view, marshaling the entire history of state-issued public debt to demonstrate its usefulness. Authors Barry Eichengreen, Asmaa El-Ganainy, Rui Esteves, and Kris James Mitchener argue that the ability of governments to issue debt has played a critical role in addressing emergenciesfrom wars and pandemics to economic and financial crises, as well as in funding essential public goods and services such as transportation, education, and healthcare. In these ways, the capacity to issue debt has been integral to state building and state survival. Transactions in public debt securities have also contributed to the development of private financial markets and, through this channel, to modern economic growth. None of this is to deny that debt problems, debt crises, and debt defaults occur. But these dramatic events, which attract much attention, are not the entire story. In Defense of Public Debt redresses the balance. The authors develop their arguments historically, recounting two millennia of public debt experience. They deploy a comprehensive database to identify the factors behind rising public debts and the circumstances under which high debts are successfully stabilized and brought down. Finally, they bring the story up to date, describing the role of public debt in managing the Covid-19 pandemic and recession, suggesting a way forward once governmentsnow more heavily indebted than beforefinally emerge from the crisis.

Download or read book Ingratitude written by erin Khuê Ninh and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anger and bitterness tend to pervade narratives by second generation Asian American daughters, despite their largely unremarkable upbringings. The author explores this apparent paradox, locating in the origins of these women's immaterial suffering not only racial hegemonies but also the structure of the immigrant family itself. She argues that the filial debt of these women both demands and defies repayment--all the better to produce the docile subjects of a model minority. Through readings of Jade Snow Wong's Fifth Chinese Daughter, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, Evelyn Lau's Runaway : Diary of a Street Kid, Catherine Liu's Oriental Girls Desire Romance, and other texts, she offers an explication of the subjection and psyche of the Asian American daughter. She connects common literary tropes to their theoretical underpinnings in power, profit, and subjection.

Download or read book Leveraged written by Moritz Schularick and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2022-12-13 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An authoritative guide to the new economics of our crisis-filled century. Published in collaboration with the Institute for New Economic Thinking. The 2008 financial crisis was a seismic event that laid bare how financial institutions’ instabilities can have devastating effects on societies and economies. COVID-19 brought similar financial devastation at the beginning of 2020 and once more massive interventions by central banks were needed to heed off the collapse of the financial system. All of which begs the question: why is our financial system so fragile and vulnerable that it needs government support so often? For a generation of economists who have risen to prominence since 2008, these events have defined not only how they view financial instability, but financial markets more broadly. Leveraged brings together these voices to take stock of what we have learned about the costs and causes of financial fragility and to offer a new canonical framework for understanding it. Their message: the origins of financial instability in modern economies run deeper than the technical debates around banking regulation, countercyclical capital buffers, or living wills for financial institutions. Leveraged offers a fundamentally new picture of how financial institutions and societies coexist, for better or worse. The essays here mark a new starting point for research in financial economics. As we muddle through the effects of a second financial crisis in this young century, Leveraged provides a road map and a research agenda for the future.

Download or read book In White Ink written by Elske Rahill and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Motherhood, nurture and violence – these are the themes of Elske Rahill's remarkable first collection, In White Ink. Rahill brings to life the psychological and physical reality of mothering, pregnancy and childbirth in ways that few others writers have attempted. Here is a biting realism, in the relations between men and women and in the expectations and failures of their assigned roles. Each story is illumined by moments of harsh poetry. They are carefully crafted snapshots of our condition. In the title story, an isolated young mother is locked in to a custody battle with her abusive husband; 'Right to Reply' shows three generations of women confronting the terrible legacy of their family's past; in 'Toby', a woman obsessed with hygiene finally snaps, when she finds her home is infested with fleas. The precision of Rahill's prose, the stoicism of her unflinching narrative gaze, reveal characters caught up in violently emotional situations. The version of motherhood found here is painful. Yet its endurance, as nature's greatest force, is brilliantly and compassionately rendered.

Download or read book House of Debt written by Atif Mian and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-05-20 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A concise and powerful account of how the great recession happened and what should be done to avoid another one . . . well-argued and consistently informative.” —Wall Street Journal The Great American Recession of 2007-2009 resulted in the loss of eight million jobs and the loss of four million homes to foreclosures. Is it a coincidence that the United States witnessed a dramatic rise in household debt in the years before the recession—that the total amount of debt for American households doubled between 2000 and 2007 to $14 trillion? Definitely not. Armed with clear and powerful evidence, Atif Mian and Amir Sufi reveal in House of Debt how the Great Recession and Great Depression, as well as less dramatic periods of economic malaise, were caused by a large run-up in household debt followed by a significantly large drop in household spending. Though the banking crisis captured the public’s attention, Mian and Sufi argue strongly with actual data that current policy is too heavily biased toward protecting banks and creditors. Increasing the flow of credit, they show, is disastrously counterproductive when the fundamental problem is too much debt. As their research shows, excessive household debt leads to foreclosures, causing individuals to spend less and save more. Less spending means less demand for goods, followed by declines in production and huge job losses. How do we end such a cycle? With a direct attack on debt, say Mian and Sufi. We can be rid of painful bubble-and-bust episodes only if the financial system moves away from its reliance on inflexible debt contracts. As an example, they propose new mortgage contracts that are built on the principle of risk-sharing, a concept that would have prevented the housing bubble from emerging in the first place. Thoroughly grounded in compelling economic evidence, House of Debt offers convincing answers to some of the most important questions facing today’s economy: Why do severe recessions happen? Could we have prevented the Great Recession and its consequences? And what actions are needed to prevent such crises going forward?

Download or read book The Debt written by Andreae Callanan and published by Biblioasis. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 61 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2022 Fred Cogswell Award for Excellence in Poetry • Shortlisted for the 2023 E.J. Pratt Family Poetry Award Set against the backdrop of a post-moratorium St. John’s, Newfoundland, The Debt explores tensions between tradition and innovation, and between past and present in a province unmoored by loss and grief. The Debt is about development and change, idleness and activism, ecological stewardship, feminism, motherhood, the personal and the political. It is also about resistance—against the encroaching forces of greed and capitalism, even against the accumulated notions of the self. The poems are an argument for community and connection in an age increasingly associated with isolation of the individual. The Debt explores the dues we all owe: to nature, to those who came before us, and to one another.

Download or read book Microfinance Debt and Over Indebtedness written by Isabelle Guérin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-10-15 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although microcredit programmes have long been considered efficient development tools, many forms of debt-induced distress have emerged in their wake. This has brought to light the problem of over-indebtedness, a topic which has been previously underexplored in the literature. This new book, from a group of leading scholars, explores the manifestations, scale, and economic and social implications of household over-indebtedness in areas conventionally considered as financially excluded. The book approaches debt not only as a financial transaction, but also as a form of social bond, and offers a socioeconomic analysis of over-indebtedness. The volume puts forward a broad definition of over-indebtedness, highlighting its situational and semantic complexity and diversity. It provides a close analysis of local conceptions of debt and over-indebtedness, highlighting frameworks of calculation and the constant renegotiation of their boundaries. On top of this, it looks far beyond microcredit to examine all the financial practices that individuals juggle. The volume argues that over-indebtedness has more to do with social inequalities than financial illiteracy, and should therefore be understood in the light of global trends of financialization. It also reveals the ambiguity of "financial inclusion" policies, and in many respects questions the actions of new credit providers. This book will be valuable reading for students, researchers and policy makers interested in microfinance and development issues.

Download or read book The Debt to Pleasure written by John Lanchester and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2001-12-07 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A "New York Times" Notable Book, "The Debt to Pleasure" is a wickedly funny ode to food as the novel's snobbish narrator instructs readers in his philosophy on everything from the erotics of dislike to the psychology of the menu.

Download or read book Republic of Debtors written by Bruce H Mann and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Debt was an inescapable fact of life in early America. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, its sinfulness was preached by ministers and the right to imprison debtors was unquestioned. By 1800, imprisonment for debt was under attack and insolvency was no longer seen as a moral failure, merely an economic setback. In Republic of Debtors, authorBruce H. Mann illuminates this crucial transformation in early American society.

Download or read book The Value of Debt written by Thomas J. Anderson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-09-16 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller and one of the Ten Best Business Books of 2013 by WealthManagement.com, this book brings a new vision of the value of debt in the management of individual and family wealth In this groundbreaking book, author Tom Anderson argues that, despite the reflex aversion most people have to debt—an aversion that is vociferously preached by most personal finance authors—wealthy individuals and families, as well as their financial advisors, have everything to gain and nothing to lose by learning to think holistically about debt. Anderson explains why, if strategically deployed, debt can be of enormous long-term benefit in the management of individual and family wealth. More importantly, he schools you in time-tested strategies for using debt to steadily build wealth, to generate tax-efficient retirement income, to provide a reliable source of funds in times of crisis and financial setback, and more. Takes a "strategic debt" approach to personal wealth management, emphasizing the need to appreciate the value of "indebted strengths" and for acquiring the tools needed to take advantage of those strengths Addresses how to determine your optimal debt ratio, or your debt "sweet spot" A companion website contains a proprietary tool for calculating your own optimal debt ratio, which enables you to develop a personal wealth balance sheet Offering a bold new vision of debt as a strategic asset in the management of individual and family wealth, The Value of Debt is an important resource for financial advisors, wealthy families, family offices, and professional investors.

Download or read book Why Not Default written by Jerome E. Roos and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How creditors came to wield unprecedented power over heavily indebted countries—and the dangers this poses to democracy The European debt crisis has rekindled long-standing debates about the power of finance and the fraught relationship between capitalism and democracy in a globalized world. Why Not Default? unravels a striking puzzle at the heart of these debates—why, despite frequent crises and the immense costs of repayment, do so many heavily indebted countries continue to service their international debts? In this compelling and incisive book, Jerome Roos provides a sweeping investigation of the political economy of sovereign debt and international crisis management. He takes readers from the rise of public borrowing in the Italian city-states to the gunboat diplomacy of the imperialist era and the wave of sovereign defaults during the Great Depression. He vividly describes the debt crises of developing countries in the 1980s and 1990s and sheds new light on the recent turmoil inside the Eurozone—including the dramatic capitulation of Greece’s short-lived anti-austerity government to its European creditors in 2015. Drawing on in-depth case studies of contemporary debt crises in Mexico, Argentina, and Greece, Why Not Default? paints a disconcerting picture of the ascendancy of global finance. This important book shows how the profound transformation of the capitalist world economy over the past four decades has endowed private and official creditors with unprecedented structural power over heavily indebted borrowers, enabling them to impose painful austerity measures and enforce uninterrupted debt service during times of crisis—with devastating social consequences and far-reaching implications for democracy.