Should We Abolish Household Debts?

We live in a culture of credit. As wages have stagnated over the past few decades, we’ve seen a dramatic surge in private borrowing across the western world, with increasing numbers of households sucked into a hopeless vortex of spiralling debt fuelled by exploitative lending. 

This punchy and original book argues that this situation is chronically dysfunctional, both individually and collectively. Johnna Montgomerie shows that abolishing household debts can help us end austerity and the unsustainable forward march of debt-driven growth. She threads together astute economic analysis with an accessible guide to practical policy solutions, such as extending unconventional monetary policy to the household sector, providing pragmatic and affordable refinancing options, and writing off the most pernicious elements of household debt. This framework, she contends, can help us make our economy fairer and tackle both the housing crisis and accelerating inequality.

This book will appeal to the growing numbers of people interested in creating alternative paths to economic renewal, and offers an inspiring agenda that can change our collective future.

Johnna Montgomerie is Lecturer in Economics at Goldsmiths, University of London.