Luke Bretherton talks poverty and the presidential campaign

KIE Senior Fellow Luke Bretherton (Divinity) recently addressed poverty in America for the Duke University podcast series “Glad You Asked.” The series is part of the Duke Office of News and Communications web resource devoted to the 2016 election season, Campaign Stop 2016. Each week, a different faculty member addresses an issue they find critical to the presidential race.

“It’s very expensive to be poor in contemporary America,” Bretherton says. Why? One reason is usury, an ancient term for exorbitant rates of interest that is very relevant to our modern world. Crippling debt, he argues, is poisonous to democracy.