It´s Our Money with Ellen Brown

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Will the Fed Help Rescue Main Street?

Will the Fed Help Rescue Main Street? 

While that notion sounds improbable to most economic observers, recent actions by the Federal Reserve have opened the door for critical direct lending to states and large municipalities. This is a big deal because not having to rely on the Wall Street bond market could both increase the amount of funding available  and decrease the cost of that borrowing. It is an historic breakthrough that could make a critical difference as costs rise for local governments while their revenues drop precipitously due to the current economic collapse. Further, if this lending relationship continues, new prospects open for creating a distributed network of public banks that hold a permanent relationship with the Fed.

Cheers!

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Building a Real-World Economy

Building a Real-World Economy

 

How would it be if we changed our economic priorities to the concerns of the real world rather than the giddy greed of fantasy finance?  Renowned futurist and founder of Ethical Markets, Hazel Henderson, discusses a whole new category of thoughtful, real-world economic study that integrates multiple dimensions of life such as the environment, quality of life, politics, social impact.  And speaking of impacts, the Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the nation’s financial centers and the Federal Reserve – Ellen discusses these impacts on our understanding of funding limitations; we may have blown right through them!

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Grassroots Government Must Lead

Grassroots Government Must Lead

 

Government “of, by and for the people” is a precept adopted by citizens and politicians alike even though it may just be wishful thinking in terms of public policy. As the political money power of corporations continues to roll over public interest policies and practices, significant new public remonstrance is growing on many fronts. One of them is West Virginia, home to generations of exploitation by out-of-state monopoly powers, where one of the most exciting grassroots uprisings in the nation has deployed a powerful campaign for creating transformational public policy through democratic action. Its economic platform proposes a new public state bank. We talk with the champion of this campaign who is running for governor, Steve Smith, who currently leads in the polls.  And we visit with another populist leader, WA State Senator Bob Hasegawa, that State’s most stalwart proponent of a state bank; he considers it essential for the State’s economy and future. Now it looks like he’s going to find success in his 10-year pursuit after all.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Neoliberalism’s Death Knell?

Neoliberalism’s Death Knell?

 

The global economic devastation produced by market-driven profiteering has resulted in distressed and deprived citizens taking to the streets by the hundreds of thousands in cities around the globe and continues its destructive exploitation of our planet’s resources. The culprit is an aging “neo-liberal” economic system which produces historic social inequality while consolidating power in the hands of a few. Our guest, renowned economist Michael Hudson, says this system is more neo-feudal than neo-liberal – and that its inherent excesses are on the verge of bringing it down. Ellen reports that one example of its demise may be in Mexico where its new president is creating new public banks to help address some of its neo-liberal market inequities.

 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Another Look Behind the Curtain

Two recent developments provide another look at how powerful monetary interests play their game. One is the CIA-driven coup to unseat Venezuela’s legitimate government in order to take control of that rich nation’s assets, and the other is a “Laundromat”-styled offshore scam by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase to capture energy markets.  Our guests are attorney-activist Kevin Zeese of Popular Resistance, who is facing threat of jail time for actions defending the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, and Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen, whose recent research exposed 61 fake off-shore companies set-up by Goldman Sachs to circumvent regulators.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Resolved for 2020: Come Together

“Divide and Conquer” is a proven method for creating chaos that can diffuse and distract opponents.  Today’s guest, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and renowned global commentator, says that’s how the globe’s financial elite diffuse public challenges to the raw economic deal that citizens around the world contend with.  But things are changing, and people are beginning to band together to challenge the unified media narrative that props up big business and government deceptions. Our other guest, Swami Beyondanonda, offers encouragement to those creating new possibilities for our world, including through new public banks.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - History Was Made This Year

2019 was the Centennial celebration of America’s only publicly-owned State Bank, the Bank of North Dakota -- a living legacy that has helped sustain that state through thick and thin.  It’s also the year that new public banks gained important ground from state governments and governors in two key states, New Jersey and California. It’s also the year that one of the Fed’s best-known leaders passed away, Paul Volker, whose administration is credited with helping solve an inflation crisis in the 1970’s, a factoid that Ellen doubts to be true. We celebrate the North Dakota history with a leisurely conversation with its Centennial historian, Mike Jacobs, whose deep knowledge of the Bank’s history provides instructive context for new public bank initiatives. 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Regenerative Science – Regenerative Economy

It turns out that laws of nature are foundational to sustainable economies. The human overlay of extractive and exploitative industries and systems ultimately leads to a demise of life systems for people and the planet, yet we celebrate “free” markets that are driven by much different principles.  Ellen reports on her discussions with bio-nutritionists about how returning to principles of natural pasturing present the best way for us to correct global warming, and Walt talks with Professor Ed Quevedo about regenerative economies that mirror biological systems of collaboration and mutual support.  

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - That’s An Order

Executive Order 91, just delivered by Governor Phil Murphy of New Jersey, has dramatically accelerated the national drive for creating new public banks. Now beginning a year-long project to explore the prospects and resources for a NJ State Bank, the new Public Bank Implementation Board includes both State officials and citizen advocates. Ellen and Walt discuss the mandate of this new order which puts NJ in a leading position among state bank proponents.  Ellen also reports on how public banks can help enable a Green Transition and some of the surprising fiscal efficiencies being discovered by new research. And we also talk with political economist and author Dr. Sean Vanatta about our notion of money and some of the systems that have evolved around its applications.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Forces of Nature: Principles, Passion and People Power

With focused minds, persistent hearts and no money, the citizens of California overcame one of the most powerful financial and political lobbies in the state to win the legislative battle that has codified creation of municipal banks in the world’s fifth largest economy. Trinity Tran, founding leader of the movement, talks with Ellen about what it took to achieve the surprising victory which has opened the door for creation of municipal public banks in California and around the country. How would such a bank impact an historic American city like Baltimore? A recent study suggests that the opportunities are many, unique and deserve serious study. Our guest Dr. Sean Vanatta authored the report and talks with co-host Walt McRee about its recommendations.