It´s Our Money with Ellen Brown

It's Our Money With Ellen Brown - Who We Are

Who We Are

 

It takes a comprehensive historical understanding to grasp the true social and economic dynamics that got America started as an independent nation. Global imperialist interests 250 years ago, like today, wanted more than to just retain their wealth; they wanted to lock in oligarchic control. Our guest Anton Chaitkin’s new book Who We Are – America’s Fight for Universal Progress, from Franklin to Kennedy digs deeply into the historical realities which presaged the inequality struggles of today, namely the fight for the rights of humanity over the power of privilege and money. Ellen has an engaging full-length conversation with Chaitkin in this edition of our program.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - The Wealth Hoarders

Would you trade considerable inherited wealth to address the expansive systemic inequities generated by our financial system?  Our guest Chuck Collins did just that and has written a book on how dynasties of private wealth have secreted trillions of dollars in offshore assets by obscuring accounts and creating other types of subterfuge that are served by an extensive and exclusive professional category Collins calls “the wealth defense industry.”  His new book The Wealth Hoarders raises deep questions about the impact of extreme wealth on our economy and democracy.    

 

 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Banking on People

Public banks of one form or another are emerging like Spring flowers. Across the USA a score of new public interest banking initiatives aim to fill service and credit voids that private finance won’t or can’t provide. Today we discuss three emerging applications of public bank principles: serving the substantial number of un-and underbanked people in California through the proposed new BankCAL program, creating a multi-trillion-dollar public infrastructure bank for the US, and clear evidence that public banks have excelled over private banks in responding to the global pandemic crisis. Our guests are Trinity Tran of the CA Public Bank Alliance, Alphecca Muttardy of the National Infrastructure Bank Coalition, and Thomas Marois, a leading expert on public banks globally. 

It's Our Money with Ellen Brown - Land – YO! - 03.17.21

Land – YO!

The discovery of land as an alternative to income as a basis for taxation is a provocative new territory for those concerned about wealth inequality and public finance. Land value was favored by Adam Smith and promoted by economist Henry George as a fairer methodology for determining appropriate levels of taxation.  Our guest is Alanna Hartzok, Founder and Director of the Earth Rights Institute and author of The Earth Belongs to Everyone. She talks with Ellen about the benefits of land value taxation and how the separation of people from land ownership has damaged a fundamental human connection to economic health and civic community.

 

It's Our Money With Ellen Brown - What Can YOUR Bank Do?

What Can YOUR Bank Do?

 

It’s not often you hear a bank president say that his bank will instinctively “rush in” to help alleviate economic crises and cataclysms, but that’s what the publicly-owned bank of North Dakota does.  Our featured guest, BND president Eric Hardmeyer, describes his model public bank in both historical and functional terms for a rapidly expanding audience that sees this 100 year old bank as the inspiring icon of the national public banking movement. And our guest, Professor and author of Banking on the State Mark Cassell of Kent State University, further illustrates the proven benefits of public bank principles by describing how Germany’s national system of public banks have established one of the world’s most resilient and potent economies -- and has been doing so for over 200 years.      

 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - What History Did To Economics

What History Did To Economics

 

History happens. Economics is a fabrication. The intersection between them is the space in which public policy and prospects emerge.  Our guest, author and historical scholar Matthew Ehret, has studied the deep historical dynamics that underpinned development of some of the primary economic views of our day such as Hayek’s Austrian austerity and Keynes’ systemic generosity. Ehret says that adherence to one over the other misses the benefit of each and ignores their historical context. Ellen’s conversation with Matt Ehret takes you on an economic history tour of the past 200 years.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Debt Defying

Virtually all Americans share personal ties to debt of one sort or another.  While debt can be a useful tool for navigating life, it is too often a requisite resort for those who must depend on it just to get by. Students, patients, low-wage workers – the debilitating impacts and categories of debt are numerous and ubiquitous. One movement is addressing this economic scourge by uniting citizens to educate them and help them take action – co-host Walt McRee talks with national Debt Collective organizer Jason Wozniak about their strategies to help individuals face-off our economy’s debt colossus. And Ellen Brown talks with Professor Tim Canova about the inherent challenges to citizen’s Constitutional rights being brought forward by government-directed Covid lockdowns – can America’s unique Bill of Rights retain relevance in a time of a perceived health pandemic? 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - What Do You Know?

What Do You Know?

 

After almost 100 years of living you’d be surprised what you might learn, especially if you’ve had the high privilege of knowing state secrets. Conclusions and insights drawn from those many years of experience are particularly valuable when they come from an iconic public leader like our guest, the Honorable Paul Hellyer, former Defense Minister of Canada, that nation’s longest-serving Parliamentarian. Hellyer has written 17 books and his latest, Liberation: The Economics of Hope deals squarely with the many overlooked and hidden realities that determine how our world works and for whom. Ellen talks with Paul Hellyer at length about what he’s seen and who he sees is really in charge of this planet and how they shape our democratic future. 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Transforming Banks

Transforming Banks

 

The history of banking is at the center of cultural evolution from Sumerian tallies of agricultural debts, to the Medici, all the way to the current Global Masters of Capital. But banks today are being called to evolve into more democratic institutions that can foster and nurture human community rather than continuing to prioritize private profits above public interest . Our guests today discuss how some banks are already taking breakthrough roles in stabilizing communities and fostering well-being returns on civic investments. Notable activist banker Kat Taylor, Chair of Beneficial State Bank, joins Foresight Lab directors Ed Quevedo and Mackinzee Macho and ecological economist Mark Anielski to discuss the changing foundations of banking and the transformative prospects that offers.

 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Getting in the Game

The Federal Reserve and the architecture of our monetary system use private capital and financial marketeers as primary channels for getting money into our economy, while keeping the public off key fiscal playing fields. A new federal-level legislative initiative called the Public Banking Act represents a systemic breakthrough for the role of public interest financial institutions, providing access to the many monetary benefits that could give critical help to citizens, cities and states. Our guest David Jette helped advise the two prominent Congresswomen who sponsored this important legislation. We take a close look at how and why this could be a pivotal moment for the creation of public banks nationally.