One year ago, a campaign group affiliated with Occupy Wall Street called Strike Debt announced a campaign called the Rolling Jubilee, which sought to buy up distressed debt for pennies-on-the-dollar — for the purpose of abolishing it.
Historically, a debt jubilee was a feature of ancient Jewish law, under which all debts were written off every seven years. So why is Strike Debt trying to do something similar?
Strike Debt describes the program as a “bailout of the people, by the people.” The group targeted people struggling to service necessary debt, such as those without medical insurance who ended up needing expensive medical care.
So far, the Rolling Jubilee campaign has bought up and written off almost $14 million in debt.