While the Occupy Wall Street movement has achieved one of its goals – the re-election of President Obama – the activist group is turning to another goal: the reduction or elimination of high consumer debt. Organizers of the Occupy Wall Street movement announced this week that they will be using an interesting technique to accomplish their goal: the plan to become debt buyers. However, they won’t be setting up collections call centers: once they purchase the debts, they will forgive them.
Called “Rolling Jubilee”, the plan is to use money from donations to buy distressed consumer debt from lenders at a marked down price, just as debt collection agencies normally would, and then wipe it out. The hope is that the liberated debtors will themselves contribute to the fund, "rolling" the jubilee forward, Business Insider is reporting this week.
The group has already started on its mission. It has reportedly purchased $14,000 in face value consumer debt for $500, forgiving the balances on all accounts. The group said on its website that it intends to directly compete with debt buyers and brokers... Read More
By