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As sympathetic as I am to the idea that housing is too expensive etc., how exactly would you stop a debt jubilee from being gamed? If my mortgage is going to be forgiven, shouldn't I find the biggest, most expensive house possible, take out a huge mortgage to buy it, then wait for my mortgage to be forgiven / paid off by the jubilee?

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Keene's suggestion is basically a flat universal payment, if you have debt it must be used to pay down debt first.

http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/manifesto/

I don't really get how it's supposed to work though. What would ensure it increased consumption and productive investment, rather than just further fuelling asset price inflation.

It's supposed to work because Keene's models suggest it would work: the failure in the economy is not one of underproduction (we have dramatic overcapacity and, if anything, overproduction) but rather a lack of monetary power in the broader consumers hands, caused by the burden of private debt.

It's unorthodox, but I buy it. Or, at least, I'd rather try his solution than keep trying the failed policies of both the orthodox and keynesians.

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