It´s Our Money with Ellen Brown

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.

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - The Mouse That Roared

A group of smart, undauntable, unpaid citizen volunteers just reaped a statistical victory for public banking in the nation’s second largest city, Los Angeles. While actually losing the total vote count, Public Bank LA got almost half the vote and delivered over 420,000 votes on a recent public banking referendum with only a couple weeks to work and virtually no money to campaign. We talk with Trinity Tran and Ben Hauck of the citizen movement behind this ballot initiative, Revolution LA, about how they did it, why they did it, what they were up against and what’s next. And we revisit a conversation with author and professor George Lakey as he talks about how citizen initiatives like Public Bank LA helped Scandinavia become one of the happiest economies on the planet.     

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Retrospectives

For our 100^th program since beginning almost 5 years ago, we’ve assembled a retrospective of conversations with select special guests delving into the many fascinating aspects of our monetary and banking systems. Noted economist Michael Hudson talks about the history of monetary systems and banking control, Canadian government icon Paul Hellyer discusses globalist plans for preserving monetary control in the hands of a few, the predatory lending imposed on our cities and states is reported on by Roosevelt Institute fellow Saqib Bhatti, and the charade of under-scaled regulatory agencies charged with protecting our financial systems from fraud is described by preeminent professor and forensic regulator Bill Black. Ellen and Walt discuss recent public banking voting results in Los Angeles and Bob Bows provide his final installment of global economic and spiritual transformation. 

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Regenerating Nature and the Economy

Our debt-based capital regime appears oblivious to the essential demands of Nature and the regenerative systems that are our most foundational economy. The urgency of our climate crisis means transformative reform of our monetary relationships is desperately needed. Responding to that need, our guest Ed Quevedo, Director of Regenerative Design at the Foresight + Innovation Lab in CA, has been working with economic and policy leaders to build a New Regenerative Economy (NRE). This California-based initiative is complemented by other CA progressive movements that include the push for a Los Angeles public bank. Co-host Walt McRee talks with Marc Armstrong, who is consulting for PublicBank LA, a vibrant, smart group of young activists intent on creating a public bank in the nation’s second largest city by winning a measure placed on this fall’s ballot by the L.A. City Council. And commentator Bob Bows delivers the next installment of his new book on transforming global economies.      

It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown - Crisis Finance - 10.11.18

We live with a monetary system designed to stage recurring crashes which move  personal and public assets into the hands of the Oligarchy. American history is filled with examples of financial stratagems enabled by power-center bankers both near and far. Our guest Thomas Hanna of the Democracy Collaborative talks with Ellen about “The Crisis Next Time” and why we need to use the next banker-crash debacle to move our financial controls into the hands of the public. Commentator Bob Bows reviews some shocking American history that makes it clear these financial crises are no accident and how they are destroying democracy. And Anna Callahan of “The Incorruptibles” outlines how citizens must organize to reclaim the political power needed to protect themselves from the corporate financial powers both locally and nationally.