Hello and welcome

Hello and welcome to ACFM, the home of the weird left.

My name's Keir Milburn, and I'm joined by my very good friend Nadia Idle.

Hello.

And my other very good friend, Jeremy Gilbert.

Hello.

And today we're discussing the very seasonal topic of debt.

So guys, why are we talking about debt at this moment?

What's going on?

Well, it's the aftermath of the Christmas season

when traditionally the Western consumer finds themselves to be indebted. It's a huge topic,

like philosophically, anthropologically, economically, sociopolitically. We've just been told

in the past week that the Labour government that came into office promising not to implement any more austerity

might have to implement more austerity. And why? Because the price of government debt has risen

on the bond markets. So the question of what debt is, who experiences it, what its history

is, what we even mean by it. It's a huge, huge topic.

Nadia, what about you? So, yes, I'm interested in all of the global and kind of governmental

sides of debt, and it's kind of reminding me of all of the stuff I studied for my master's

when I was studying 20 years ago.

So all of that stuff is really interesting.

I'm also particularly interested in personal debt and kind of how it influences people.

So like what debt does to us, how it influences our attitudes and behaviors and relationships.

...