The real solution to the economic crisis

[Placid Dingo]

CB, i would think that it would definitely cap the loan terms to 7 years if we actually implemented a regular 7 year jubilee, for obvious reasons.  Even if we just did it once, it would have a hell of a dampening effect for fear of it happening again, with a trail off that i don't think could be predicted.
a lack of lending, in the current setup, is certainly puts the kibosh on an economy.  but if this were actually implemented, i think it would be a whole new world economically, and trying to predict the outcome would be impossible.

i guess that's my take on it, in the end.  the current system is so complex, monstrous, and calcified at the core, that any large disruption would crash it like a house of cards.

we need this bill in congress stat. 

This is bugging me now because it's triggering something i'm having trouble articulating. I remember hearing of something (it possibly was even the jubilee example, and i think i may have read it in Freakonomics) but the example was of a cylcle by which debts were routinely repaid. (Could even have been Islamic.)

The point was that the whole thing had MASSIVE issues because everyone always tried to fuck eachother; borrowers would try to avoid repayments for long enough to have debts repaid. Lenders would get crazy and intimidate and harass borrowers approaching the forgiveness period.

So as for routine debt forgiveness... uncertain.

[tyrannosaurus vex]

Jubilee happened every 50 years in Israel, and it was not an across-the-board debt forgiveness, it was a specialized sabbatical year in which all debts were mandatorily repaid: loans were repaid, leased land was returned to the owner, etc. Basically anything that had been borrowed had to be given back to its owner. Things like interest and rent were prorated based on how long it was until the next Jubilee year. So it wasn't just "every 50 years, all debts were erased." All debts were erased, because they had to be repayed by the borrower in that year. Or else... Being Israel 2500 years ago, I assume the penalty for failing to repay a loan during Jubilee was stoning or something. Also I expect they worked out lots of "technically repayed with more borrowed money" schemes in order to avoid the whole thing.