At virtually every economic scale, debt propels the economy. The working poor pay for groceries and medical emergencies on their credit cards. Cities clear snow and pay kindergarten teachers using funds borrowed from Wall Street. States pave highways and staff prisons by issuing bonds. Nations borrow from global banks to rebuild electrical lines and water sanitation systems after climate disasters or wars, with punishingly high interest and fees. What austerity has unwound from the welfare state it has wound back up on the backs of the poor and the precariat, this time as debt. If today’s economy is marked by intense wealth inequality, debt is one of its key mechanisms, the means of ensuring the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Is a debtors’ revolution on the way?

Presented by South Atlantic Quarterly Special Debt Issue Authors Jason Wozniak, Eleni Schirmer, Braxton Brewington, Sofya Aptekar