Filed under: Audio | Tagged: fast-track, public banking, TISA, TPP, TTIP | 8 Comments »
USAWatchDog: Obama Secret Trade Deal Serves Corporations and Banks
Posted on June 24, 2015 by Ellen Brown
New on “It’s Our Money” — Monetary Reform: Trending
Posted on June 21, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Remarkable changes are underway in the world of monetary policy, theory and even the forms of money itself. Beyond just technology, these new forms and re-forms of the dominant money control systems are being pushed by the need for fairer economic distribution as well as raging battles between global private banks and citizens of Greece, Spain, Canada and more. This week Ellen speaks with Uli Kortsch, president of Global Partners Investments, who advocates replacing money creation by private banks through “fractional reserve lending” with government-issued money, and we visit with colleagues in London working on something similar. Co-host Walt McRee discusses a new series of workbooks designed to enable more local investment while Matt Stannard discusses the humanitarian concerns imposed by the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Listen to the podcast here.
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Fast-track Hands the Money Monopoly to Private Banks — Permanently
Posted on June 11, 2015 by Ellen Brown
It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. — Attributed to Henry Ford
In March 2014, the Bank of England let the cat out of the bag: money is just an IOU, and the banks are rolling in it. So wrote David Graeber in The Guardian the same month, referring to a BOE paper called “Money Creation in the Modern Economy.” The paper stated outright that most common assumptions of how banking works are simply wrong. The result, said Graeber, was to throw the entire theoretical basis for austerity out of the window.
The revelation may have done more than that. The entire basis for maintaining our private extractive banking monopoly may have been thrown out the window. And that could help explain the desperate rush to “fast track” not only the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), but the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). TiSA would nip attempts to implement public banking and other monetary reforms in the bud. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: fast-track, monetary reform, public banking, TISA, TPP | 59 Comments »
Upcoming conference in Claremont, CA — “Seizing an Alternative” ; and Dr. John Cobb talks about it on “It’s Our Money”
Posted on May 24, 2015 by Ellen Brown
On June 4-7, 2015, we aim to create Pandomonium!
“Seizing an Alternative: Toward an Ecological Civilization”focuses on the big ideas that matter for a thriving ecosphere, featuring some seven hundred presenters and more than eighty areas of specialty. For details, see here. And to hear about it, listen to founder Dr. John Cobb interviewed on “It’s Our Money with Ellen Brown”, here.
Filed under: Audio | Tagged: ecological civilization, public banking | 7 Comments »
Derailing Amtrak: Tracking the Latest Disaster in the Infrastructure Crisis
Posted on May 19, 2015 by Ellen Brown
The dangerous underfunding of US infrastructure was underscored by a fatal train derailment on May 12th. The tragedy did not deter the House Appropriations Committee from voting to slash Amtrak funding the very next day. There are ways Congress could fund its massive infrastructure bill without raising taxes. But the conservative-controlled Congress seems to have other plans for the nation’s profitable public assets. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: Amtrak, debt ceiling, high-speed rail, infrastructure crisis, public banking, quantitative easing | 19 Comments »
Dane Wigington, Matt Stannard, Marc Armstrong on “It’s Our Money”
Posted on May 8, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Connecting the Dots – 05.06.15
At what point are you willing to challenge your own notions of what’s really going on? Can you even imagine that the mavens of the Money Power would threaten human survival to serve themselves for even bigger personal profits? Ellen’s guest, researcher Dane Wigington, has a trove of data to suggest that they would. And they do so in the form of geoengineering, a covert tool allegedly being used to control natural systems for private profit. We also hear commentary from Matt Stannard about the economics of the Baltimore uprising and from Marc Armstrong about America’s only publicly-owned depository bank, the Bank of North Dakota, which just issued its latest annual report — it’s another record-setting winner!
Listen here.
Filed under: Audio | Tagged: Bank of North Dakota, geoengineering, TPP | 4 Comments »
The Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Death of the Republic
Posted on April 24, 2015 by Ellen Brown
The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government. — Article IV, Section 4, US Constitution
A republican form of government is one in which power resides in elected officials representing the citizens, and government leaders exercise power according to the rule of law. In The Federalist Papers, James Madison defined a republic as “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people . . . .”
On April 22, 2015, the Senate Finance Committee approved a bill to fast-track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a massive trade agreement that would override our republican form of government and hand judicial and legislative authority to a foreign three-person panel of corporate lawyers. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary, fast-track, ISDS, TPP | Tagged: fast-track, ISDS, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership | 81 Comments »
Gar Alperovitz on “It’s Our Money” with Ellen Brown
Posted on April 22, 2015 by Ellen Brown
In the world of monetary reformists, there’s a clear understanding that things not only shouldn’t continue as they are, they can’t continue as they are – that systemic failure is upon us as current social and political outcomes tear at the fabric of civil life. Ellen speaks with Gar Alperovitz, one of America’s most venerable reformist thinkers and policy experts, about his new “The Next System Project” to help design and precipitate what should happen next. Also, maybe the national debt is unnecessary after all – author Scott Baker talks with co-host Walt McRee about his new book “America is Not Broke,” and Matt Stannard reports on the financial travesties imposed by Wall Street on American cities.
Filed under: Audio | Tagged: gar alperovitz, next system project, public banking | 8 Comments »
USAWatchDog: No Backup Plan for California Drought
Posted on April 15, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | 20 Comments »
How America Became an Oligarchy
Posted on April 6, 2015 by Ellen Brown
The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. . . . You have owners. — George Carlin, The American Dream
According to a new study from Princeton University, American democracy no longer exists. Using data from over 1,800 policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of – or even against – the will of the majority of voters. America’s political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where power is wielded by wealthy elites. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: democracy, monetary reform, oligarchy, public banking | 98 Comments »
California Water Wars: Another Form of Asset Stripping?
Posted on March 24, 2015 by Ellen Brown
In California’s epic drought, wars over water rights continue, while innovative alternatives for increasing the available water supply go untapped.
Wars over California’s limited water supply have been going on for at least a century. Water wars have been the subject of some vintage movies, including the 1958 hit The Big Country starring Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood’s 1985 Pale Rider, 1995’s Waterworld with Kevin Costner, and the 2005 film Batman Begins. Most acclaimed was the 1975 Academy Award winner Chinatown with Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway, involving a plot between a corrupt Los Angeles politician and land speculators to fabricate the 1937 drought in order to force farmers to sell their land at low prices. The plot was rooted in historical fact, reflecting battles between Owens Valley farmers and Los Angeles urbanites over water rights.
Today the water wars continue on a larger scale with new players. It’s no longer just the farmers against the ranchers or the urbanites. It’s the people against the new “water barons” – Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Monsanto, the Bush family, and their ilk – who are buying up water all over the world at an unprecedented pace. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: California water wars, primary water | 61 Comments »
The ECB’s Noose Around Greece: How Central Banks Harness Governments
Posted on March 10, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Remember when the infamous Goldman Sachs delivered a thinly-veiled threat to the Greek Parliament in December, warning them to elect a pro-austerity prime minister or risk having central bank liquidity cut off to their banks? (See January 6th post here.) It seems the European Central Bank (headed by Mario Draghi, former managing director of Goldman Sachs International) has now made good on the threat. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: central banks, ECB, Goldman Sachs, Greek crisis, public banking | 56 Comments »
PRN has a new website; and Ellen Brown interviews Paul Craig Roberts
Posted on March 9, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Progessive Radio Network, where you can hear our radio show “It’s Our Money”, has a new and improved website that allows comments. First up on the new site is my interview of Paul Craig Roberts (great guest!). The link is here —
http://itsourmoney.podbean.com/e/the-whole-story-022515/
The second half of that interesting interview will be played this Wednesday at noon PST/3 pm EST.
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Power Point, Economics of Happiness Conference, Portland, February 28, 2015
Posted on March 9, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | 7 Comments »
Banking on Colorado Conference, Denver, January 31, 2015
Posted on March 9, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Swimming with the Sharks: Goldman Sachs, School Districts, and Capital Appreciation Bonds
Posted on February 20, 2015 by Ellen Brown
The fliers touted new ballfields, science labs and modern classrooms. They didn’t mention the crushing debt or the investment bank that stood to make millions.
— Melody Peterson, Orange County Register, February 15, 2013
Remember when Goldman Sachs – dubbed by Matt Taibbi the Vampire Squid – sold derivatives to Greece so the government could conceal its debt, then bet against that debt, driving it up? It seems that the ubiquitous investment bank has also put the squeeze on California and its school districts. Not that Goldman was alone in this; but the unscrupulous practices of the bank once called the undisputed king of the municipal bond business epitomize the culture of greed that has ensnared students and future generations in unrepayable debt. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: Bank of North Dakota, capital appreciation bonds, Goldman Sachs, public banking | 39 Comments »
Why Public Banks Outperform Private Banks: Unfair Competition or a Better Mousetrap?
Posted on February 10, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Public banks in North Dakota, Germany and Switzerland have been shown to outperform their private counterparts. Under the TPP and TTIP, however, publicly-owned banks on both sides of the oceans might wind up getting sued for unfair competition because they have advantages not available to private banks.
In November 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the nation’s only state-owned bank, “is more profitable than Goldman Sachs Group Inc., has a better credit rating than J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and hasn’t seen profit growth drop since 2003.” The article credited the shale oil boom; but as discussed earlier here, North Dakota was already reporting record profits in the spring of 2009, when every other state was in the red and the oil boom had not yet hit. The later increase in state deposits cannot explain the bank’s stellar record either.
Then what does explain it? The BND turns a tidy profit year after year because it has substantially lower costs and risks then private commercial banks. It has no exorbitantly-paid executives; pays no bonuses, fees, or commissions; has no private shareholders; and has low borrowing costs. It does not need to advertise for depositors (it has a captive deposit base in the state itself) or for borrowers (it is a wholesome wholesale bank that partners with local banks that have located borrowers). The BND also has no losses from derivative trades gone wrong. It engages in old-fashioned conservative banking and does not speculate in derivatives.
Lest there be any doubt about the greater profitability of the public banking model, however, this conclusion was confirmed in January 2015 in a report by the Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation (SBFIC) (the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation), a non-profit organization founded by the the Sparkassen Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe) in Germany. The SBFIC was formed in 1992 to make the experience of the German Sparkassen – municipally-owned savings banks – accessible in other countries. Continue reading
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | 55 Comments »
Upcoming Event: Challenge Capitalism – Santa Ana, CA, February 12, 2015
Posted on January 29, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Tickets available here: http://drrickwolffinoc.brownpapertickets.com/.
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | 5 Comments »
Upcoming Event: Banking on Colorado: Bring Our Money Home — A Public Banking Conference — Denver, CO, January 31, 2015
Posted on January 29, 2015 by Ellen Brown
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | 1 Comment »
WEB OF DEBT BLOG 
“Sentence First, Verdict Afterwards”: The Alice in Wonderland World of Fast-tracked Secret Trade Agreements
Fast-track authority is being sought in the Senate this week for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), along with the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) and any other such trade agreements coming down the pike in the next six years. The terms of the TPP and the TiSA are so secret that drafts of the negotiations are to remain classified for four years or five years, respectively, after the deals have been passed into law. How can laws be enforced against people and governments who are not allowed to know what was negotiated? Continue reading →
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: fast-track, TISA, TPP, trade agreements | 44 Comments »