How public debt enriches global finance while impoverishing the rest of us

Economist Ramaa Vasudevan lays bare the political-economic alchemy—the enchanter’s wand—that transmutes public debt into private wealth. She shows how US-led finance commandeers public powers in its pursuit of returns and how debt usurps authority from peripheral states. Warning that a malignant mutation is underway with the rise of cryptofinance and the tighter embrace of Big-Tech and Big Finance, she points to the possibilities and pitfalls of the Chinese model of partnership, where the state maintains a tight leash on finance. The path forward, she argues, lies in reclaiming public debt as the common property of all and establishing the democratic claims of working people over those of global finance.