Like most of us, you probably learned in school that people invented money to replace barter, markets are guided by The Invisible Hand, and a debt is a kind of sacred promise. Like much else you learned in school, says anthropologist David Graeber, this is wrong. Markets are constructed by states, while the appearance of debt, slavery and money in human affairs coincide with the appearance of violent empires, and recede when empires are in decline. Debts are only sacred, Graeber explains, when the poor owe the rich, and there are key distinctions between debts and promises. Graeber, the author of Debt: The First 5,000 Years is interviewed by C.S. Soong on KPFA's Against the Grain...
The Origins of Debt, Money, Slavery and Empire An Against the Grain Interview by C.S. Soong and Sasha Lilley
KPFA.s Against the Grain is consistently one of the best interview shows around. We at BAR steal ideas from them all the time. You can find a link to Debt: The First 5,000 Years here .
listen
http://www.againstthegrain.org/files/files/atg/atg_2013.01.07_graeber.mp3
The Haitian people have been targeted by more powerful nations ever since they dared to secure their freedom two hundred years ago.
Events in Ukraine have not stopped the US drive for domination.
This issue of Black Agenda Report gives special attention to events in Ukraine.
White supremacy is at the heart of US war propaganda. The exhortation to "stand with Ukraine" is no exception to this rule.
As the European-initiated World War I raged, W. E. B. DuBois reminded us about the destructive nature of the “culture of white folk.” It is a reminder sorely needed today.
