It´s Our Money with Ellen Brown

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Believe It - 11/05/14

From a surplus in 1974 to paying $1.1 trillion dollars for borrowing the same money it used to print for free, Canada, like most Western nations controlled by global bankers, is now firmly entrained with indebtedness to the global banking cartel. Guest Paul Hellyer, Canada’s former Defense Minister and best-selling author, describes a hard reality: a small number of Oligarchic Elites are well along on their path to taking complete control of the affairs of “any and all” economies through imposing debt servitude. Ellen talks with Dr. Hellyer about the increasing threat facing democratic institutions in the age of global finance.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Finding Our Way Out of the New Feudalism - 10/22/14

If a historical marker is needed, we can go back to the Magna Carta to identify the beginning of a populist demand for fairness from oligarchic powers. In the recently completed public bank symposia on West and East Coasts, that call was renewed by participants who met with community leaders and elected officials to explore what needs to happen next to establish local and regional public banks. Co-host Walt McRee talks with author, lawyer, playwright, radio commentator and international negotiator Craig Barnes about his views of where things stand now in the struggles for economic fairness and later with PA Project Founder Mike Krauss about the themes and conversations that took place at the “Public Banks for Public Works” symposium in Philadelphia on October 18th.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Who’s Afraid of Richard Wolff? - 10/08/14

In the worlds of economic theory and “acceptable” economic discussion, the terms “Socialism” and “Marxism” acquired an anti-patriotic stain during the 20th Century, despite the significant social economic progress realized by early American populist movements. Noted economics professor Dr. Richard Wolff, who has taught at many esteemed universities, has been overlooked for decades because of his Marxist/Socialist specialties; but suddenly he is out and about making the rounds on major media outlets talking about the failures of Capitalism, how they helped bring about the collapse of the American middle class and set a stage for continuing economic decline. Ellen talks with Dr. Wolff about a way forward that marries American values and sensibilities with the goals of these maligned economic theories.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - What's the Alternative? - 09/24/14

The broad-based economic destruction brought on by extractive private
banking has got lots of people thinking hard about alternatives. The Scots
came close to starting on a new path in recent weeks that could still
materialize with some re-focusing on its banking options, while the possible
recurrence of big bank failures has many Americans actively looking for
alternatives.  In this edition of "It's Our Money" Ellen holds a
foundational conversation with globally-recognized economic theorist
Christopher Cook about how a new world of monetary management could be
realized for the benefit of all. Meanwhile, citizens are rallying their
national public bank initiatives at the upcoming "Banking on New Mexico"
symposium.  Co-host Walt McRee speaks with project founder, author and
diplomat Craig Barnes about what's brewing in Santa Fe.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Getting Past It All - 09/10/14

Economic realities and their theories define our world regardless of where we live.

After a while, they deserve reexamination to see if they measure up to our needs, interests

and values. This week Ellen visits with Prof. Cynthia Kaufman about her book Getting Past Capitalism and looks

at some of its systemic failings and limitations. Similarly, students around the world are demanding

reexamination of the prevailing economics canon hoping to institute a broader, more politically responsible view of

economic theory.  Co-host Walt McRee talks with an organizer of the “Rethinking Money NY”

conference taking place this weekend at Columbia.   

 

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - A State-Owned Bank of Wisconsin? - 07/30/14

Despite recent years of corrosive state politics, Wisconsin voters may soon create a new way forward by electing a public banking advocate as State Treasurer. Madison attorney David Leeper has made creating a state-owned public bank his centerpiece with an urgent sense of purpose. Ellen talks with him about his perspectives and later, on the Public Banking Report, with two prominent bankers and co-host Walt McRee about underlying bank dynamics that support the public bank option.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Who Really Owns Your Home? - 07/16/14

If you've got a mortgage, you probably assume that the folks receiving your
monthly payments are the ones holding your deed. But in Montgomery County,
PA., a dedicated Recorder of Deeds recently won a significant court battle
over the common bank practice of not recording changes in mortgage ownership
when they pool them into secured instruments for investors, stiffing local
governments of billions of dollars in fees and ruining their recorded
historical chain of property ownership. Ellen speaks with Nancy Becker and
the attorneys who pulled off this class-action local government victory.
Meanwhile, local mayors around the country have taken a formal stand for
enabling local post offices to serve their un-banked citizens who are
regularly gouged by pay-day lenders. Co-host Walt McRee speaks with Ira
Dember of BankACT about recent successes in the rapidly growing national
movement to turn post offices back into neighborhood banking centers.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Eminent Domain to the Rescue? - 07/02/14

A flood of foreclosures in neighborhoods, cities and towns can cause
everyone's real estate equity to plunge. Some towns would like to step-in to
protect their communities, but they can't get the mortgage notes written
down to affordable levels for contractual reasons. The solution: use eminent domain
to claim the properties for the municipality, then renegotiate them on
behalf of struggling homeowners.  Ellen talks with the pre-eminent
legal mind behind the emerging eminent domain stratagem, Cornell professor
Robert Hockett, whose idea has been catching on in towns across America, including
some of the biggest.

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Why We Need Public Banks Now - 06/18/14

Unexamined assumptions often lock us into limited choices, especially when
it comes to the topic of managing public money. We assume there's only so
much of it and that if we need more we must deal with the de facto guardians
of its distribution, the big banks. Discovering that the public can source
its own money for public interests has generated a groundswell of new
efforts to create publicly-owned banks. On today's show, Ellen speaks with
Mike Krauss, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Project, about the need and the
issues underlying the growing public banking movement; on this week's
Public Banking Report, co-host Walt McRee talks with an elected public
official, Ed Brominski of Luzerne County, PA, who is leading the charge for
change despite the entrenched resistance of his colleague's unexamined
assumptions about municipal money management.

It's Our Money - Where They Hid Our Civic Treasure and How We Can Get Our Hands On It - 06/04/14

One of the best kept deceptions within common civic parlance is that our cities, states and communities are “broke” – a meme perpetuated by a lack of public knowledge about what governments do with their money and a highly profitable investment industry that uses those funds for substantial private profits that suck outrageous sums out of our common wealth. 

 

This week It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown provides a look into where our “buried” civic treasure can be found and how we can use it to create substantial public benefit. Ellen shows how private financing of civic projects has created repeated windfalls for banks and investors, and she later talks with Professor Tom Greco about how communities can create credit-based economies to get free of the all-encompassing web of civic debt. 

 

On the Public Banking Report, co-host Walt McRee discusses the location and contents of every community’s “treasure chest” with Scott Baker, an expert at evaluating how to determine how much is in it and how it can be used to dramatically change local economic prospects.