Debt, usury and the ongoing crises of capitalism

Abstract

This chapter addresses a concept that was once central to debates within classical liberal thought but today is largely neglected: usury. The question of usury divided classical liberals over whether there should be a free market in the provision of credit or rather government policing of the social and moral limits of debt. These divisions resurface in a contemporary the current post-crisis period in debate over whether the short-term loan market should be free to meet the demands of credit supply (the libertarian position) or should be regulated by government agencies to ensure that it works within limits (a neoliberal stance). This chapter argues that the concept of usury is useful for questioning the role of state and government in regulating private debt, and for considering the possibility of an alternative politics of debt that centres not on regulating the rate of interest charged on credit, but rather the freedom of banks and other institutions to lend money at a price.