The Rolling Jubilee project deleted $15m worth of personal debt by spending $400,000.

It is a common fact that the US in a lot of debt, but personal debt is a huge issue for many Americans. So a group of the Occupy movement decided to clear the medical debt of a large number of private citizens. How is this possible? On the secondary debt market, as we learnt in class, where people buy and sell already existing debt – here the debt lenders, such as credit card and  insurance companies, sell their loans to reduce risk while other debt-buying companies then attempt to recoup the debt from the individual debtor and thus make a profit.

Though the project was not about making profit, but about charity.By spending a fraction of what the money the private persons would have had to, the movement successfully purchased the medical debt and deleted it.

This is an interesting, and creative, way to use the stock and debt markets which should maybe be used more often as it creates benefit towards the general economy as well as a huge impact on the people who get their debt deleted.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/12/occupy-wall-street-activists-15m-personal-debt