It´s Our Money with Ellen Brown

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - And Forgive Them Their Debts

The backdrop of debt is so ubiquitous that we seldom stop to think about what devastation it causes in our personal and public lives. Today’s guest, world-renown economist Dr. Michael Hudson, knows. Debt’s role in destroying economies and nations dates back to ancient times when rulers understood that public debt needed to be periodically forgiven in order to maintain order and economic stability. But today conditions have actually gotten worse as the uber-powerful financial elite the world over prey on the worker economy for the sake of personal profit, infiltrating government decision-making that keeps them and their profits in control.  It’s a sobering assessment not to be ignored and a wake-up call for citizen education and action.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Getting to Yes

What’s it like to start a public bank in 2019, one hundred years after the last one?  What steps and impediments are discovered along the way and what succeeds?  Today’s guest, David Jette, reports on the substantial progress being made in CA after several years of studying and initiatives for creating public banks. Current proposed legislation seeks to transform an existing state agency for infrastructure and another seeks to open the regulatory path – and both represent the sort of challenges other proponents face around the country. And for karmic and comic relief, we get a visit from Swami Beyondanonda who reviews our civic prospects with inscrutable common sense.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - The Public Banking Revolution Is Upon Us

The pace of public bank developments appears to have reached a new plateau. From turning revolving funds erroneously called infrastructure “banks” into depository banks capable of leveraging capital as real banks do, to new bank configurations that connect municipalities as virtual co-op bank partners, public banking is “arriving” from coast to coast. Ellen reports on where these new legislative developments are taking place and why they matter to the big picture of public bank adoption. Later, Ellen completes her conversation with global public bank expert Thomas Marois about how public banks provide more cost effective management of public funds and co-host Walt McRee brings the fourth installment of a centennial retrospective on the Bank of North Dakota with author and historian Mike Jacobs.     

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Global Proof of the Public Option

The success of publicly-owned banks around the world should give broad encouragement to US state and local governments looking for some financing relief on their growing debt loads. Today’s guest, Thomas Marois, a Senior Lecturer at the University of London, is an expert on the impact that public banks have on economies and societies. His study of public banks shows both the efficiencies and stability these banks provide, as well as the important role democratic participation plays in bank operations.  Our lone US public bank, the Bank of North Dakota, is celebrating its first 100 years and reflects the same values and benefits as its global siblings.  But its birth years were anything but stable and make a colorful story of politics, personalities and pushback from the banking industry. We take a third visit on BND’s historical trail with author and historian Mike Jacobs.  

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Debating Socialism and Public Banks

Socialism has acquired an outsized connotation for being the enemy of the core values and tenets of American economic and political life – a threat to private ownership and initiative and a challenger on the international stage of cultural and political domination. While variations on the practical themes of socialist-based public policy abound across the globe, and often with unparalleled success, Socialism has now hit the American political arena with surprising vigor and acceptance, particularly by younger generations who are inheriting the systemic costs of capitalism’s latter stages.  Ellen talks with noted economist Dr. Richard Wolff about how the growing discussions about socialism can enrich the broader discussions about problem-solving public issues and moving our economic game forward.  And we also visit with North Dakota author and historian Mike Jacobs in our second installment about the Bank of North Dakota’s history – now 100 years and counting….

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - 100 Years and Counting

Great American institutions are often forged in controversy and tempered by time but endure nonetheless. One of those is the Bank of North Dakota, an anomaly on the American banking frontier because it is owned and operated by the State of North Dakota. The storied past of this revered institution is the subject of a series of interviews with Mike Jacobs, a former ND newspaper editor, historian and author of the bank’s Centennial book that describes its history. In this first edition we learn that the bank wasn’t even on the minds of the people who won the legislative power to create it!  We also talk with philosopher, author and comedian Steve Bhaerman about a new effort to create “Functional Politics” – a sane idea for an “insane” world. 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - AFFORDING THE FUTURE WE MUST PURSUE

AFFORDING THE FUTURE WE MUST PURSUE     

Time is running out for many of our stressed social, economic and environmental systems.  We need to make big changes to address our biggest challenges quickly. But can we afford to fix issues like unsustainable debt, crumbling infrastructures, environmental deterioration and the political tyranny of special interests? In this edition, we feature a full-length conversation between Ellen and Professor Bob Hockett, a leading voice for the emerging Green New Deal and a consultant to the political players working it through Congress. Bob is a renowned expert on monetary systems and consultant for the Fed, IMF and other authorities. This is a far-ranging conversation not to be missed.   

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - The "Reserved" Federal Reserve

By “reserved” we mean “reserved for the banking giants.”  Our guest today is Professor Tim Canova, a noted expert on the Federal  Reserve  and a veteran survivor of the federal election system that saw his two campaigns for Congress crushed by Democratic Party power-players affiliated with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a top party official. Whether it's election outcomes or banking policy, the game is rigged from the highest points of influence and control. Tim and Ellen discuss the details that provide a bracing look at two of our most important public institutions.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - 100 Years of Service to the People

2019 is the centenary of the only public bank in the United States, the Bank of North Dakota.  It’s a big deal.  From the struggling prairie farmers who started the bank after they took control of their state government to its unmatched success as a financial institution, the BND has inspired the launch of a hopeful national movement to bring about key systemic changes to the public’s access to its common wealth. Dr. Rozanne Enerson Junker is our guest, an expert on the history of the Bank.  Rozanne talks about the way things were in North Dakota that precipitated the bank’s creation, how it got started and how many of the same aspects of monopoly-controlled finance still impact other American communities today.  It is the first in our series of broadcast discussions on the Bank of North Dakota for 2019.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - The People Are Coming for Their Money

In so many ways and places around the world, citizens are expressing their intention to reclaim wealth that has been siphoned from their lives and local economies by the mechanisms of private capital control. Banks and governments are both targets for the wrath and revolutionary ideas that have arrived in France and are heading to Washington. In this edition, Ellen talks about the emerging Green New Deal idea that uses the Fed and a network of public banks to finance a sustainable future and social equity. And she talks with author and economics professor Dr. Jack Rasmus about the mechanisms of the Fed and financial markets which undermine the prospects for realizing the public’s interest in economic fairness. But some folks aren’t waiting: Walt and Ellen talk with Me’Lea Connelly, a founding Director of Village Financial, a new black-owned credit union co-op that is changing the economic prospects of a long-underserved community.