Mortgage debt in an age of austerity

Susan J. Smith

Chapter 2 in Debt and Austerity, 2020, pp 30-45 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: By far the largest personal debts in most modern societies take the form of residential mortgages. Symbolically as well as practically, such loans have a profound influence on the wider lending and borrowing ecosystem. In this chapter, I show first how the advent of markets for mortgages helped credit emerge from the shadows of opprobrium into the spotlight of respectability. Second I turn to the way mortgage product innovation blunted, for a while, the hard edge of an unequalising world - one in which borrowing became a structural necessity. I conclude with a thought experiment to consider whether there is anything about mortgages - or more properly housing finance - that affects the outlook for the future.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Geography; Law - Academic; Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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