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Yves here. I was shocked to learn of David Graeber’s untimely death. I met Graeber at the instigation of Michael Hudson, who brought Graeber to dinner at Sakagura, a sake bar in Manhattan. If my memory serves me right, this was fall of 2011, shortly after the publication of Graeber’s blockbuster, Debt: The First 5000 Years, and either during or shortly after Occupy Wall Street camped out in Zuccotti Park. Graeber was energetic and full of academic and leftie political gossip. He kept checking his phone because he was looking to join some fellow activists later in the evening.

Our differences over tactics (we had a dustup over Strike Debt’s Rolling Jubilee) don’t diminish the considerable impact that Graeber had on the understanding of how debt operated in ancient societies and how the power balance between borrowers and lenders has changed in the modern era.