The Arts to the Rescue?

“Interest on interest eats your pay
Till one last gobble takes it all away”

Michael Hudson

George sent me “Bite of Compounding Rate”, a poem set to music inspired by my work on Clean Slate. It follows a doubling drop of water until a stadium floods, then takes us back to ancient Sumer, where rulers cancelled debts to stop families losing their land and freedom.

He’s using song to bring this history to younger audiences and people unfamiliar with economics. The poem gets at a problem we still face: debts can grow faster than our ability to pay.

Listen to Bite of Compounding Rate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hgbe5D3RkI&t=1s

BITE OF COMPOUNDING RATE

One drop falls at stroke of one

On the turf where ballgames run

Two drops next, then four, and eight

Nobody worries till it’s too late.

Water rises, you underestimate

One last doubling seals your fate

Took a loan at the corner bank

A little debt in a growing tank

Interest on interest, year by year

Numbers grew; the end drew near

Interest on interest eats your pay

Till one last gobble takes it all away

Back in Sumer by river’s bend

They knew debt spiral had to end

Grain loans at third a year

Farmers lost all they held dear

A new king rose, declared new day

Cancelled debts, swept them away

Minute forty-four, stadium’s half full

One minute more, it’s over the wall

Debt keeps rising, poor take the fall

Break the chains, freedom to all

Break the tablets, open the gates

Clean slate! Clean slate!

You never see the flood till too late

That’s the bite of compounding rate

—

https://imaginethis.ca/finlit/

George from Western Uni, thank you!