NEW BOOK! “Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age”

My new book, nearly 3 years in the making, is finally in print. It’s called “Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age” and is published by the Democracy Collaborative. As our democracy hangs in the balance, I hope this book allows many more people to understand why having control over the money supply is central to the idea of democracy, and what we can do to wrest that control from big private banks and put it squarely in the hands of the people.

From the back cover:

Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.

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Banking on the People is a compelling and fast-moving primer on the new monetary revolution by the godmother of the public banking movement now emerging throughout the country. Brown shows how our new understanding of money and its creation, long concealed by bankers and others capturing the benefits for their own purposes, can be turned to support the public in powerful new ways.

—  Gar Alperovitz, professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, Co-Founder of The Democracy Collaborative and author of America Beyond Capitalism and other books

More lucidly that any other expert I know, Ellen Brown shows in Banking on the People how we can break the grip of predatory financialization now extracting value from real peoples’ productive activities all over the world. This book is a must read for those who see the promising future as we seek to widen democracies and transform to a cleaner, greener, shared prosperity.

—  Hazel Henderson, CEO of Ethical Markets Media and author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books

Ellen Brown shows that there is a much better alternative to Citibank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Public banks can safeguard public funds while avoiding the payday loans, redlining, predatory junk-mortgage loans and add-on small-print extras for which the large commercial banks are becoming notorious.

—  Michael Hudson, Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and author of Killing the Host and other books

Banking on the People offers a tour de force for those activists, NGOs, and academics wanting to understand the forces at play when we talk about the democratization of finance. A must read!

— Thomas Marois, Senior Lecturer, SOAS University of London, author of States, Banks and Crisis and other publications

17 Responses

  1. Congratulations – this sounds like a very timely and needed book! Are you making review copies available?

    Sent from my iPhone

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  2. With ‘Democracy’, the Greeks concurrently developed ‘Theater’.

  3. The issue of rents rentiers and the oppression linked to whomever owns the deed to the land you must inhabit in order to get to work is naturally where it all ends up.

  4. Reblogged this on The Most Revolutionary Act and commented:
    From the back cover:

    “Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.”

  5. More good news from Ellen Brown!

  6. Thanks. My best shot anyway!

  7. Dear Ellen

    Congratulations. Democratizing money is a key element in the radical change, thatbthis world needs.

    Can you send me an electronic copy for review?

    Best

    Christoph

    Zeitpunkt Werkhofstr. 19, CH-4500 Solothurn Tel +41 32 621 81 12 http://www.zeitpunkt.ch edition.zeitpunkt.ch http://www.christoph-pfluger.ch

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  8. Hello Ellen
    I also have written a book about the same subject. This was my take on the issue:
    At this time I don’t see any cryptocurrency that is capable of collecting tax. A society without tax is simply not possible and also won’t happen. I expect 2/3rd part of tax is needed to provide for universal basic income 1/3rd part is for institutes and projects for common benefit, like roads, hospitals, schools, prisons etcetera. I expect that only a cryptocurrency that automatically collects (I expect about 5%) VAT on every crypto transaction and immediate distributes the tax part as UBI and to the institutes and projects for common benefit, will remain in the end. Simply because half of the world population will depend heavily on UBI and will only use the cryptocurrency that provides the highest UBI. How the 1/3rd remaining tax is spend is also easy. Each wallet user has a list with percentages he wants to provide tax to his local institutes and projects for common benefit. According to that list the remaining tax is distributed. This way there are NO POLITICIANS needed to distribute tax. This system would be decentralized and global at the same time. Look at http://www.ubi-wallet.com for details.

    I would love to work together you to assess the possibilities of my solution. Please let me know.

  9. Can’t wait to read it! Web of Debt was fundamental to my understanding of finance and WallStreet during the bloody days of the financial collapse.

  10. […] new and radical economic thinking. Previous readings have included Doughnut Economics, Limits, Banking on the People, Capital and Its Discontents, How to Be an Anti-Capitalist in the 21st Century, The Deficit […]

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