> the vast majority of the world's responsible debt arrangements which wind up beneficial to both parties.
This is the part where I think he actually is on pretty solid historical ground. Almost every society in history has had significant problems with, and a backlash against, at least certain kinds of debt, where it didn't really seem to be in the interest of both parties. They don't really seem like outlier cases. Most societies seem to have dealt with it by deciding that it's not actually good to require repayment in every circumstance, especially if the debt persists for a while. That's why you have things like the biblical Jubilee---periodic cancellation of all debts---in many societies.
The periodic cancellation of all debts thing was one bit that I found fascinating and wished had been expanded upon. I mean, what actually happened historically after that?
I mean, did the credit market dry up overnight? Once the precedent has been set that the king can cancel everyone else's debts for no reason, what reason would anyone have for lending money? Or did some folks come up with "un-cancellable" debts which are deemed not to be cancelled in jubilees (under penalty of private leg-breaking)?
What actually happened in Ancient Israel was: the market (and the society) worked around it. Creditors lent less money in the run-up to a Jubilee year, but once that had passed, they also came up with various religious/legal rationalizations/arrangements to allow them to effectively enforce debts.
The part I found interesting, and wanted to read more about, was the Golden Age of Islam, in which a financial and commercial system developed (in fact, developed free-market ideology) entirely without usurious debts of any kind.
This is the part where I think he actually is on pretty solid historical ground. Almost every society in history has had significant problems with, and a backlash against, at least certain kinds of debt, where it didn't really seem to be in the interest of both parties. They don't really seem like outlier cases. Most societies seem to have dealt with it by deciding that it's not actually good to require repayment in every circumstance, especially if the debt persists for a while. That's why you have things like the biblical Jubilee---periodic cancellation of all debts---in many societies.