Debt Topics

Democracy Now! stories, posts and pages that relate to Debt

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  • Amys_column_default

    "The Growing Global Movement Against Austerity"

    By Amy Goodman with Denis Moynihan

    Amaia Engana didn’t wait to be evicted from her home. On Nov. 9, in the town of Barakaldo, a suburb of Bilbao in Spain’s Basque Country, officials from the local judiciary were on their way to serve her eviction papers. Amaia stood on a chair and threw herself out of her fifth-floor apartment window, dying instantly on impact on the sidewalk below. She was the second person in two weeks in Spain to commit...

    Nov 15, 2012 | Columns & Articles
  • Rolling_jubalee_opt_1

    Rolling Jubilee: Buying Up Distressed Debt, Occupy Offshoot Bails Out the People, Not the Banks

    An offshoot of Occupy Wall Street has launched a new movement called "Rolling Jubilee" to buy distressed debt from financial firms, often for pennies on the dollar, and then canceling it so that borrowers do not have to repay. The people who incurred the debt in the first place then get a certified letter informing them they are off the hook. Typically, financial institutions sell debt for pennies on the dollar to third parties who either...
    Nov 15, 2012 | Story
  • Discussion

    Roundtable: After 1 Year, OWS Gives Voice to Resistance of Crippling Debt and Widening Inequality

    The Occupy Wall Street movement is largely credited for reframing the national dialogue on economic inequality and popularizing the phrase, "We are the 99 percent." We host a roundtable with Frances Fox Piven, an author and professor at City University of New York who has studied social movements for decades; Nathan Schneider, editor of the blog Waging Nonviolence, which has extensively covered the Occupy movement; and Suzanne Collado,...
    Sep 17, 2012 | Story
  • Button-simpson

    Paul Krugman: Debt Commission Chair Alan Simpson is Wrong to Call For Greater Austerity, Budget Cuts

    Earlier this week, former Sen. Alan Simpson, who co-chaired President Obama’s bipartisan deficit commission, attacked New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, saying his work "borders on hysteria." We ask Krugman to respond to Simpson, who has advocated for slashing spending despite the economic downturn. "We’re witnessing a gigantic experiment in the kinds of policies that people like Simpson want," Krugman says....
    May 17, 2012 | Story
  • Student_debt_protest

    1T Day: As U.S. Student Debt Hits $1 Trillion, Occupy Protests Planned for Campuses Nationwide

    Today marks what activists are calling 1T Day, the day U.S. student debt reaches $1 trillion. A coalition of groups from Occupy Wall Street plan to gather on college campuses and communities around the country to protest record-high college costs and call for an extension of low-interest rates on federally subsidized Stafford loans. In a bid to court the youth vote, President Obama weighed in on student debt on Tuesday with a speech at the University...
    Apr 25, 2012 | Story
  • Student_burning_cuny_march

    Occupy Student Debt: Students Urged to Refuse to Pay Off Loans as Schools Hike Tuition

    Monday was a day of action for university students on both coasts angered by the rising cost of tuition and the crackdowns on their recent protests. In California, students temporarily shut down a meeting of the University of California Board of Regents to protest a series of tuition hikes and the violent response to protests at UC Berkeley and UC Davis. Wary of a massive demonstration, the regents met by conference call from four different campuses...
    Nov 29, 2011 | Story
  • Congress_supercommittee_storm

    America's Not Broke: Solving the Debt Crisis by Making Nation More Equitable, Green & Secure

    The bipartisan so-called "supercommittee" has failed to reach an agreement on reducing the federal deficit after three months of negotiations over taxes and spending. The full Congress will now have a little over a year to come up with an alternative. A trigger of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over 10 years to military and domestic programs takes effect in 2013. "What people need to remember is that we are a rich country...
    Nov 22, 2011 | Story
  • Gop_poll

    Bachmann's Iowa Straw Poll Win Signals Early Tea Party Role in Shaping GOP Primary

    The race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination heated up this weekend as Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll and Texas Gov. Rick Perry formally announced his candidacy. Bachmann led the Iowa contest with more than 4,800 votes out of almost 17,000 votes cast, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul placed a close second. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty placed a distant third, and on Sunday he announced he was leaving the presidential...
    Aug 15, 2011 | Story
  • Play_debt

    Bipartisan "Super Committee" Turns to Cutting Deficit with "Extraordinary" Powers

    The bipartisan "super committee" tasked with finding a way out of the U.S. debt crisis has been established, but what can we expect? On Thursday, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi named the final three members to the 12-person panel, split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. They will have until November 3 to recommend a plan to cut $1.5 trillion from the deficit over 10 years. We speak with Robert Borosage, founder and president...
    Aug 12, 2011 | Story
  • Play_poverty_tour

    "A Declaration of War on the Poor": Cornel West and Tavis Smiley on the Debt Ceiling Agreement

    The veteran broadcaster Tavis Smiley and the author and Princeton University Professor Cornel West are in the midst of a 15-city, cross-country trek they have dubbed "The Poverty Tour: A Call to Conscience." The tour comes on the heels of last week’s deficit agreement, which has been widely criticized for excluding a tax hike on the wealthy, as well as any measures to tackle high unemployment. "Any legislation that doesn’t...
    Aug 09, 2011 | Story