If the 2007-’08 financial crisis and its aftermath have shown us anything, it is that our economy is essentially a debt economy, one that grows, thrives, and benefits the few through the creation and extension of credit and, conversely, debt. A number of important books in the past few years have drawn attention to the various ways in which debt functions economically, politically, morally, and theologically in our global economy. David Graeber’s Debt: The First 5000 Years and Maurizio Lazzarato’s The Making of the Indebted Man come to mind.

Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University and veteran of the Occupy movement, makes a significant contribution to this literature with his recently published Creditocracy and the Case for Debt Refusal (OR Books, 2014). The bulk of Creditocracy provides a concise, polemical analysis of the various ways in which the creditor class preys upon the majority through the creation and maintenance of debt.

Read the full review at ROAR Magazine.