

— 2026
1201. Jan. 11, Sabby Sabs youtube podcast hosted by Sabrina Salvati, “The Truth About Banking,” with Earl Staelin
— 2025
1200. Aug. 24, interview with Randy Voller, “On the Porch” (radio)
1199. Aug. 10, interview with Elisa Barwick, Australian Citizens Party, “Return the power of banking to the people.”
1198. July 31, 11 am est, speaker, Capital Institute Monthly Discovery Dialogues
1197. May 29, 5 pm pst, speaker, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
— 2024 —
1191. Dec. 10, 9 am EST, interview with Dave Krieger (former host of the Power Hour)
1190. Nov. 21, 5 pm pst, 11-21 National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
1189. Oct. 30, 1:30 pm EST, Bretton Woods 90th Anniversary Commemoration, “The Public Banking Mandate,” power point by zoom.
1188. Aug. 15, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
1187. June 18, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar presentation.
1186. May 22, 6 pm pst, powerpoint for Washingtonians for Public Banking, “The Past, Present and Future of Public Banking”
1185. Apr. 25, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar presentation.
1184. Mar. 21, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar presentation.
1183. Mar. 10, 4 pm PST, speaker, Voices for New Democracy online forum.
1182. Feb. 29, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
1181. Feb.2-5, speaker, Restore Freedom Rally 2024, Freedom Law School, Orlando, FL. 10% discount code, EB10.
1180. Jan 18, 5 pm pst, power point presentation, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
1179. Jan. 13, 5 pm EST, video interview with Firebreathin’ Bob.
— 2023 —
1178. 12-21-23, 1 pm, GlobalResearch News Hour, tribute to Stephen Lendman.
1177. 12-14-23, 5 pm PST, webinar presentation, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition.
1176. 10-22-23, 10:45 am, speaker, The Weston A. Price Foundation’s 23rd Annual Conference, Kansas City, Missouri.
1175. 10-19-23, The Final Banking Solution, with Simon Thorpe and Colin Maxwell on The Vinny Eastwood Show, YouTube, Australia.
1174. 8-22-23, 10 am, Claremont, CA, Cobb Institute Center for Process, power point presentation: “Restoring Prosperity with a Financial Transaction Tax and Publicly Owned Banks.“ Zoom link is here.
1173. 6-15-23, NIB Zoom town hall, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition.
1172. 5-22-23: Radio interview, 9:30 am est, The Power Hour.
1171. 5-17-23: TV interview, CGTN America, Global Business: “Banking industry in hot seat during Congressional hearings.”
1170. Apr 27, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar, “How to Build the Nation: National Banking vs. Privatization”
1169. Apr 23, interview on World Stage with Bruce De Torres, TNT Radio
1168. 4-17-23, 9 am pst, interview with Prof. Richard Wolff, “Economic Update.”
1167. 4-8 & 4-9, 9 am est, radio interview with Dr. Elaina George, “Medicine on Call.”
1166. 4-8-23, noon pst, radio interview, Tom Quinn Show, ksco.com.
1165. 4-6-23, radio interview with Phillip Farruggio, “It’s the Empire, Stupid.”
1164. 4-4-23, 2 pm edt, NIB Zoom Roundtable, “National Banking in Times of Crisis.”
1163. Mar. 24 & 25, United for Free Speech Webinar, Think Local, Ireland.
1162. 3-23-23, 9 am EST, radio interview, The Power Hour.
1161. 3-19-23, Interview with James Corbett, “Alternative Solutions to the Banking Crisis.”
1160. 3-16-23, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition Town Hall, “Restructuring the American Workforce in a Time of Financial and Economic Turbulence.”
1159. 3-14-23, 5 pm EST, Living In The Solution with Dr. Elaina George
1158. 3-9-23, 8 am PST, Sarah Westall, podcast
1157. 3-2-23, 11 am EST, The Gary Null Show, PRN.live.
1156. 2-25-23, 15:00-17:00 GMT (Ireland), Think Local Conference 2023, Panel 3 – Money & Economics – New Paradigms
1155. 2-16-23, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition, “Washington, Hamilton, Lincoln: National Banking and the Economic Demands of Today’s Crisis,” NIB Zoom Town Hall
1154. 1-19-23, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition, “National Banking Will Drive a U.S. Economic Boom!” NIB Zoom Town Hall
— 2022 —
1153. 12-15-22: 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Town Hall presentation.
1152. 11-17-22: NIB Zoom Town Hall, “The Next Steps: The American System and the National Infrastructure Bank.”
1151. 10-19-22: NIB Zoom Town Hall, “Rebuild the Nation with a New Reconstruction Finance Corporation.”
1150. 10-8-22: 18th Annual AMI Monetary Reform Conference, 2022 “The Monetary Scene: The Last Three Years,” power point presentation.
1149. 9-8-22, 5 pm pst: NIB Zoom Town Hall, “US at the Crossroads: American Industrial Recovery or Fed Chair Powell’s Recession.”
1148. 8-11-22, 5 pm, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
1147. 8-2-22, noon pst, interview by Rep. Pamela Powers Hannley, “Powers for the People” podcast (joining Prof. Bob Hockett).
1146. 8-1-22, 5:50 to 6:10 pm pst, interview with Scott Harris, WPKN Radio in Bridgeport, CT, “Between the Lines.”
1145. 7-22-22, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar.
1144. 7-8-22, 5 pm pst, Interview with Kevin Barrett, Truth Jihad Radio.
1143. 6-30-22, 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar with Prof. Robert Hockett, Sen. Bob Hasegawa, et al.
1142. 6-16-22: National Infrastructure Bank Coalition webinar on stagflation with Nomi Prins, Robert Hockett, et al.
1141. 6-10-22: TNT radio interview with Sen. Malcolm Roberts, Australia.
1140. 5-19-22: 5 pm pst, National Infrastructure Bank town hall presentation. https://www.nibcoalition.com/all-videos
1139. 5-17-22: 11 am pst, interview, Kerry Lutz’s Financial Survival Network.
1138. Apr. 22, 5 pm cst, interview, The Hrvoje Morić Show, TNT Radio
1137. Apr. 22, 11 am est, Gary Null Show, PRN Live
1136. Apr. 20, 7 pm cst, webinar, “Public Banking: Investing in Colorado!,” Colorado Public Banking Coalition
1135. 4-19, 9 am pst, interview with Simone Mariam for the Italian blog MittDolcino
1134. Apr. 19, 12:30 pm pst, interview with Jay Taylor, “A PetroRuble Now Competes with the PetroDollar”, Jay Taylor Media
1133. Apr. 15, Interview with Kristina Borjesson, The Whistleblower Newsroom, bitchute, “History Informs a Reset That Could Serve the People”
1132. Apr. 8, Interview with Kevin Barrett, Truth Jihad Radio, 5 pm pst
1131. Apr. 6, Podcast with Bob Scheer, ScheerPost.com
1130. Mar. 31, Power Point presentation on youtube, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Invita: Debates Ensayos de Economia Coordina: Guillermo Maya — Profesor adscrito al Departamento de Economia
1129. Mar. 10, Webinar presentation, “Stop Inflation in Its Tracks! Role of the National Infrastructure Bank”
1128. Feb. 17, Webinar presentation for National Infrastructure Bank Coalition, Abraham Lincoln and the American System of Economics
— 2021 —
1127. Dec. 18, Daniel Estulin and Ellen Brown on Global Economic Implosion, Kevin Barrett Truth Jihad
1126. Dec. 7, Interview with Daniel Estulin
1125. Nov. 27, “The Greening of Finance and the Global PPP Land Grab” with Matt Ehret on youtube
1124. Sep. 29, interview with Jan Roberts of Systems Change Advocate, jroberts@ciaction.org> linkedin.com/in/jan-roberts-0001688 Systems Change Advocate
1123. Aug. 30, Center for Global Justice webinar with Walt McRee, “Public Banking: Democratizing Finance”
1122. July 28, 5 pm pst, webinar, “Public Banks: A Path to Economic Transformation in California,” EcoCiv Dialogues for Global Systems Change series
1121. July 22, 5 pm pst, webinar, “The Truth about America’s Monetary System,” American Ethical Union National Conference
1120. Mar. 29, 2 pm est, panel hosted by Rickey Gard Diamond, “Zoom of Our Own, Creating Currency and Blowing Big Bubbles.”
1119. Mar. 25, 11 am pst, BoldRethink webinar, TBA
1118. Mar. 21, 10 am pst, Public Banking panel, TBA
1117. March 5, Sean Stone interview, Unrig
1116. March 2, PBI Live Town Hall, Ohio
1115. Feb. 23, 7 pm est, Eco Justice Collaborative Webinar, “Why the Crises We Face Make Financial Reform Essential,” Religious Society of Friends, Philadelphia
1114. Feb. 17, 11 am, Steff Overbeck, Pod of Gold radio interview
1113. Feb. 18, radio interview, Phil Mikan, wlis1420
1112. Feb. 16, National Infrastructure Bank Coalition Presidents’ Day Webinar 2021 – “National Infrastructure Bank: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants”
1111. Feb. 6, radio interview, Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves
1110. Jan. 28, 6 pm est, PBI NY Town Hall
1109. Jan. 27, “Ellen Brown and Matt Ehret Discuss: A Brief History of Economic Warfare and the American System”, youtube
1108. Jan. 16, 11 am cst, Warner Lewis, Lewis at Large (Kansas City), KLWN, 101.7 FM
1107. Jan. 15, 3-5 pm, Revolution Radio, The Fetzer Report
1106. Jan. 8, 4 pm PST, zoom power point presentation, Praxis Peace Institute
— 2020 —
1105. Dec. 30, 3 pm EST, Eleanor LeCain radio show on PRN
1104. Dec. 28, 9 pm EST, interview on WPKN Radio with Scott Harris, Between The Lines Radio
1103. Dec. 13, Ramola D. Reports, US/UK news panel #11, with Prof. Tim Canova, et al.
1102. Dec. 12, podcast/radio interview, Ralph Nader Radio Hour
1101. Dec. 6, Ramola D. Reports, US/UK news panel #10, with Dr. Christiane Northrup et al.
1100. Nov. 29, Ramola D. Reports, News Panel 9, with Justin Walker, Andy Kaufmann, John Reizer, Sandi Adams
1099. Nov. 3, Turning Point Talks, Australia, Zoom power point presentation, 7 pm Australia time
1098. Nov. 1, 4 pm pst, panel, 2020 Building the New World Conference
1097. Oct. 26, Phil Mikan Show, WLIS/WMRD Radio, Conn., pre-recorded for Friday at 10 est or Saturday at 9-11 est
1096. Oct. 22, 1:15 pm EST, power point presentation, “Public Banking, Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the National Debt,” Carolina Hills Community, Chapel Hill, NC
1095. October 3, 1:30, “Energizing a Just Transition Conference.”
1094. Sept. 30, webinar,2020 Building the New World Conference, 4 pm pst/7 pm est
1093. Sept. 12, San Diego public banking group webinar with Sen. Ben Hueso, 5 pm
1092. Sept. 9, interview with Meria Heller, 10 am pst
1091. Aug. 30, interview with Jack Etkin, Citizens Forum, Community Television, Victoria, BC, 2 pm pst
1090. Aug. 17, The Power Hour, 10 am PDT.
1089. July 30, 4 pm PST, John Truman Wolfe Financial Hour
1088. July 15, 6 pm EST, Connecticut Public Banking Town Hall, livestream here
1087. July 13, Webinar, Center for Global Justice, “Why Public Banking Needs to Be Run as a Public Utility,” San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, 11am-1pm PDT
1086. Interview with Susan Johnson on public banking for Connecticut, WILI’s Let’s Talk About It Show, 5 pm EST
1085. Interview on Russia Today, “In Question,” “BlackRock the Behemoth,” July 2, 2020
1084. July 1, Bonnie Faulkner interview with Peter Koenig on Guns and Butter
1083, July 1, 8 am PST, interview with Phillip Farruggio, “It’s the Empire, Stupid,” Greanvillepost.com
1082. June 29, 9-9:30 pm EST, interview with Scott Harris, “Between the Lines,” WPKN Radio, Conn.
1081. June 24, 6-6:30 pm EST, interview with Paul DeRienzo, WBAI News, New York City
1080. June 23, 6:30-8pm MST, Webinar on Forming a New Mexico State Public Bank, Alliance for Local Economic Prosperity
1o79. June 10, podcast with Kim Iverson, “The Fed and the Big Bank Wealth Heist. Why We Need Public Banking.”
1078. Interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, 10 am PST
1077. June 5, 6 pm pst, Center for American Studies Town Meeting, Concord, NH, live-streamed
1076. June 5, 12:30 pm, Public Banking Town Hall for Colorado Leaders, Zoom conference
1075. May 28, WECAN webinar, “Structuring an Economy for People and Planet in the Time of Climate Crisis and COVID-19,” 11:00 am PST/ 2:00pm EST
1074. May 22, Interview with Kevin Barrett, Truth Jihad Radio, 5 pm PST
1073. May 21, Interview with Aaron Wissner, Local Future, Youtube livestream
1072. May 20, radio interview, “Law and Disorder,” New York City
1071. May 13, interview with Paul Jay, “Does Public Banking Work?”, The Analysis
1070. May 10, 12:00-1:00 PM EST, Dr. Elaina George radio show
1069. May 7, 11 am EST, interview with Phillip Farruggio, “It’s the Empire, Stupid,” Greanvillepost.com
1068. May 6, Conversations with Rob, community radio, 9 am PST
1067. Apr 4, interview with Walt McRee and Mark Anielski, The Economics of Wellbeing podcast (pre-recorded, TBA)
1066. May 2, podcast with Matt Stannard, Cowboys on the Commons
1065. May 1, Interview with Robert Scheer, Scheer Intelligence, KCRW Los Angeles
1064. April 30, 12 noon MDT, Public Banking Virtual Town Hall sponsored by Colorado Public Banking Coalition
1063. April 30, 6-6:30 pm, interview with Paul DeRienzo, WBAI News, New York City
1062. Apr 29, 1 pm PST, radio interview with Reinette Senum, KVRM, Nevada City, CA (pre-recorded)
1061. Apr 26, Schiller Institute Online Conference, 3 pm EST
1060. Apr 26, 6:30 am PST, Morano in the Morning radio talk show
1059. Apr 21, Interview with Jason Hartman, Creating Wealth Show
1058. April 13, “Flashpoints,” KPFA, 5:40 pm PST.
1057. April 9, radio interview with Claudia Cragg, “It’s the Economy,” KGNU Boulder CO, 6 pm MST.
1056. April 7, “Treasury Takeover?”, podcast interview with Sarah Westall and Harley Schlanger
1055. March 26, interview with Phillip Farruggio, “It’s the Empire, Stupid,” Greanvillepost.com
1054. Mar. 17, 7 pm EST, interview with Gary Null, Progressive Commentary Hour
1053. Feb. 19, radio interview on George Noory’s “Coast to Coast,” 10-12 pm pst.
1052. Feb. 8, interview with Sylvia Richardson, “Latin Waves” radio podcast.
1051. Jan. 8, interview with Marcus Ruiz Evans, 1 pm PST
1050. Jan. 2, interview with Kevin Barrett, truthjihadradio, 5 pm PST
— 2019 —
1049. Dec. 2, Interview with Jeff J. Brown, China Rising Radio
1048. Nov. 24, 7 pm, presentation sponsored by Agenda for a Prophetic Faith, Claremont Presbyterian Church, Claremont, CA, “Why We Need Public Banks”
1047. Nov. 24, 11 am, public banking presentation for “Growing Christians” class, Claremont United Methodist Church, Claremont, CA
1046. Nov. 23, public banking presentation, Pilgrim Place, Claremont, CA
1045. Nov 16-17, speaker, Soil & Nutrition Conference, Southbridge, MA.
1044. Nov. 12, interview in New York with Max Keiser, Keiser Report, “Repo Markets and UBI”
1043. Nov. 6, 5 pm EST, The CivicLab Show with Tom Tresser, live@www.facebook.com/tomtree
1042. Oct. 23, 11:30 am-1:30 pm, luncheon presentation on public banking, League of Women Voters of San Diego, Tom Ham’s Lighthouse Restaurant, 2150 Harbor Island Dr., San Diego
1041. Oct. 22, Presentation on public banking, DSA San Diego, Unite Here Union Hall, 2436 Market Street, San Diego, 6-7:30 pm.
1040. Oct 16-18, keynote speaker, Economics of Happiness conference, Jeonju, South Korea
1039. Oct. 6, 6 pm pst, interview, Jeff Rense Radio.
1038. Sept 30, noon EST, radio interview with Pauline Salotti, WUSB, Stony Brook, NY, 90.1 FM, wusb.fm.
1037. Sept. 26, 7 pm presentation, “Exploding the Myths of Money and Banking,” New Paradigm College, Lake County, CA
1036. Sept. 20, podcast interview, Silver Doctors
1035. Sept. 19, 8-9 pm pst, interview, Jeff Rense Radio.
1034. Interview, Sept. 13 at 5 pm–6 pm on KPFZ, Lake County community Radio, 88.1 FM.
1033. Sept. 6, Live with Ernest Hancock, 11 am EST (at 2 hour mark on video)
1032. Aug. 26, interview with Jason Hartman, Creating Wealth Show, 12:00 pm PST.
1031. Aug. 9, interview with Lauren Steiner, youtube
1030. July 25, youtube podcast with Sarah Westall, “This is Why China Is Winning”
1029. July 23, interview with Steve Bhaerman, Wiki Politiki Radio Show, 2 pm pst.
1028. July 19, interview with Kevin Barrett, truthjihadradio, 5 pm PST
1027. July 12, 11 am pst, interview with Annie Esposito and Steve Scalmanini, “Corporations & Democracy,” Mendocino County, CA, www.KZYX.org
1026. Interview with Crystal Arnold, Money-Wise Women, posted July 10
1025. July 9, interview with Liz Lane, “It’s the Economy,” KGNU Boulder/Denver/Ft. Collins, 6 pm MDT/8 pm EDT.
1024. June 23, interview with Mark Anielski, “The Economics of Well-being”
1023. June 15, interview with Tom Allen, “This Week in Money,” HoweStreet.com
1022. June 13, Interview with Sinclair Noe, “Financial Review,” MoneyRadio1510.com (pre-recorded)
1021. June 12, 2 pm, interview on Princeton Community TV, Princeton NJ, “The Public Banking Solution” with Walt McRee
1020. June 1, interview with Sylvia Richardson, “Latin Waves” radio podcast.
1019. Apr. 5, interview with Phillip Watt, healbyhypnosis.com, 3 pm, PT
1018. April 3, panel discussion on Green New Deal, BBC World Service, “The Balance”
1017. March 28, interview on Thom Hartmann show.
1016. March 22, interview with Sinclair Noe, Money Radio 1510
1015. March 11, interview with Phillip Farruggio, greanvillepost.com, 11 a.m. EST
1014.
1013. Feb. 9, interview with Sylvia Richardson, Latin Waves, 8 a.m. PT
1012. Feb. 8, interview with Kevin Barrett, truthjihadradio, 6 pm, PST
1011. Jan. 31, interview with Lee Camp, LeeCampComedySpecial.com
1010. Jan. 3, interview with Robert Stark, The Stark Truth with Robert Stark, re The Green New Deal https://www.starktruthradio.com/?p=8534
— 2018 —
1009. Dec. 17, interview with Scott Harris, WPKN radio, Bridgeport, CT, Between the Lines Radio Newsmagazine, 9:30 ET
1008. Nov. 2, Interview with Mike Prysner on Real News Network, https://therealnews.com/stories/will-public-banking-free-la-from-wall-street
1007. Oct. 31, interview on Real News Network, Student Debt Dogs Millenials for a Lifetime and Drags Down the Economy, https://therealnews.com/stories/student-debt-dogs-millennials-for-a-lifetime-and-drags-down-the-economy
1006. Oct. 22, speaker with Gar Alperovitz at Praxis Peace Institute, “Changing the System: California’s Strategic Role in National Strategic Change,” Sonoma, CA, 276 E. Napa St, Sonoma. 7:00 pm.
1005. Oct 19-21, Bioneers Conference, panelist on Oct 20, 2:45 pm, Marin Center, San Rafael, CA.997.
1004. Oct. 18, 350Marin.org, speaking along with Susan Harman, 750 Lindaro Street, San Rafael CA, 6:30pm.
1003. Oct. 17, video interview with Abby Martin, work in progress.
1001. Oct. 11, Interview with Harvey Wasserman, Greenpower and Wellness, prn.fm, KPFK Los Angeles, 2 pm
1000. Oct. 9, speaker, State Bank Forum, University of Washington, Kane Hall, 7-9pm http://sdc.wastateleg.org/hasegawa/state-bank/
999. Oct. 7, panel, Americans for Democratic Action of Southern California Annual Garden Party, 2-5:30 pm, Santa Monica, CA
998. Oct. 4, 7:30 pm, Living Economy Salon, panelist, Public Bank LA: “Solutions for Social and Environmental Justice”, 3110 Main St., Annex Building C 2nd Floor, Santa Monica, CA 90405
997. Oct. 3, interview on Unmediated, podcast of Reader Magazine, episode title: Making Money The Public’s Slave (The Public Banking Solution), 10 a.m. PT
996. Oct. 1, radio interview, “The Power Hour,” www.thepowerhour.com, 2 pm
995. Sept. 28, interview with Sinclair Noe, Money Radio 1510, pre-recorded for a later date
994. Sept. 20-22, California Vision 2020 Conference, speaking at 11 am on Sept 20, Sheraton Grand Hotel , Sacramento.
993. Sept. 10, interview with Lila Garrett on KPFK, “Connect the Dots”, http://www.kpfk.org/on-air/connect-the-dots/ 7. a.m. PT
992. Sept. 4, interview with Steve Bhaerman, Wikipolitiki Radio, wikipolitiki.com, 2 pm PT
991. Aug. 31, interview with Kevin Barrett, truthjihadradio. 6 pm PT
990. Aug. 26, Left Coast Forum, 1:30 pm, Los Angeles Trade Tech
989. Aug. 22, interview, the Gary Null Show, 9:40 PST
988. Aug. 14, podcast interview with Sarah Westall, 9 am pst/11 am cst
987. Aug. 8, interview with Tom Allen, “This Week in Money”, HoweStreet.com
986. Aug. 9, interview with Sinclair Noe, Money Radio 1510, pre-recorded for a later date
985. Aug. 3, 9-10 pm pst, radio interview with True Ott
984. Aug 2, New York Green Party video livestream, 5 pm PST
983. Aug. 1, interview with Elizabeth Dougherty, The Dougherty Report, Newsradio 102.5 WFLA, 3 pm PST
982. July 21, guest on WakingupinAmerica.com, 6:45 a.m., PDT
981. June 28, interview on MONEY RADIO with Sinclair Noe, 11:00 a.m., PST
980. May 16, “It’s Our Money,” PRN.FM, 3 pm est
979. May 16, interview with Michael Welch, Global Research, 11 am pst
978. May 4, First Unitarian Church, Portland, power point presentation, “How Public Banking Would Benefit Portland and Oregon”, 7-9 pm
977. April 17, Retirement Lifestyle Advocates radio program, 1 pm PT
976. April 13, interview, the Gary Null Show, 9:35 a.m., PT. Subject: The Bayer-Monsanto Merger Is Bad News for the Planet.
975. April 12 “Mind Over Matters,” KEXP, Seattle, 9 am PT
974. April 5, interview with Deb Hobson, KOPN 89.5 Democracy Now! Chautauqua, 4 pm PT
973. Mar. 10-12, PBI retreat, Loveland, CO
972. Mar. 22 interview with Sinclair Noe, The Financial Review, Money Radio 510, 1:30 pm PST
971. Mar. 19, Coast to Coast AM radio, 10pm-midnight, PST
970. Feb. 28, interview with Ian Trottier, Miami Radio, http://iantrottier.com/, 5:15 pm EST. Listen here, bit.ly/EllenBrownCA
969. Jan. 23. 18th National Conference and Global Forum: The Science Business, and Education of Sustainable Infrastructure, Washington DC, panel
968. Jan. 20, Interview with Primo Nutmeg https://soundcloud.com/primonutmeg
967. Jan. 17, It’s Our Money, 3 pm est–listen here.
966. Jan. 17, interview with Valerie Kirkgaard, http://www.wakingupinamerica.com, 2 pm PST
965. Jan. 2, Interview withJeff Rense, rense.com, 9 pm PST
— 2017 and before, see —
Blog at WordPress.com. WP Designer.
THE ABUNDANCE PARADIGM: WHY AI FORCES A RETHINKING OF MONEY ITSELF — PART 1
A Universal Basic Income (UBI) has long been proposed as a way to cushion the blow of jobs lost to automation. Under that model, everyone receives a modest monthly payment – enough to cover basic needs and prevent extreme poverty.
But Elon Musk has gone further. On April 16, he posted on X:
Rather than a subsistence stipend, Universal High Income (UHI) would be a level of income allowing ordinary people to live well in a world where machines do most of the work. Musk has also said that AI and robotics are the only things that can solve the massive U.S. debt crisis.
That sounds promising, but where will the government get the money to pay the UHI? Critics say any government that tried it would go bankrupt. There are also other concerns, which will be addressed in Part 2 of this article. Here we will look at the financial underpinnings: why UHI is even thinkable, why AI forces a reexamination of how money enters the economy, why the current system cannot scale to meet what is coming, and the implicit transition needed to meet that challenge.
Why the Current Money System Cannot Scale
The national debt of the U.S. government just topped $39 trillion. China’s is $18.7 trillion. Japan’s is $8.6 trillion. Those of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain are each in the multi-trillion-dollar range. Collective global debt now stands at $353 trillion, 305% of the world’s annual economic output. So even if, hypothetically, everything produced in the world in a year were applied toward liquidating the debt, it still would not be enough to pay it all off.
In fact the debt can never be repaid, because of the way money currently enters the system. Nearly all of the money supply today is created by banks when they make loans. Banks do not lend their existing capital. The loan itself creates the money. The bank adds the loan amount to the asset side of its balance sheet and balances that sum with the same amount on the liability side. When the borrower withdraws or transfers the funds, either the bank takes them from its reserves in “vault cash” or the Federal Reserve debits the bank’s digital reserve account at the central bank. But the lending bank typically has funds coming into its reserve account at about the same rate as they are going out, so its reserves are continually replenished. Thus a very small reserve account can support a much larger money creation engine. For decades before the Fed discontinued the reserve requirement in 2020, it hovered at around 10%.
The chief problem with this debt-based system is the interest, which the bank does not create in its original loan. For a typical long-term loan, interest can double the total tab or more. Where is the money to come from to pay this added liability? Across the system as a whole, it must either come from more borrowing or from existing funds. In the case of governments, that means issuing interest-bearing bonds or tapping taxes and other revenues. The interest on the debt compounds, meaning the government is paying interest on interest. This makes the debt increase exponentially, until it is mathematically unsustainable. Then bankruptcies occur, of banks or even whole governments. Booms turn into busts, and the cycle begins again.
Today, interest on the federal debt is the second largest budget line item after Social Security, exceeding $1 trillion. Meanwhile, workers are losing jobs to AI/robotics, shrinking the income tax base. The system is clearly unsustainable.
How to Raise Demand to Scale to the Upcoming Supply
A Universal High Income would replenish the shrinking tax base by replacing the lost wages of unemployed workers. But where will the money come from to pay the UHI? The only sustainable solution is for the government to issue it interest-free. That does not mean through the Federal Reserve, which creates money in the same way banks do: it buys federal interest-bearing securities with accounting entries. The Fed collects the interest, which it is supposed to return to the Treasury after deducting its costs. But since 2008, its costs include paying interest on the reserves of its participating banks, which consumes its profits. (See my earlier article here.)
The only interest-free, debt-free solution that will actually increase the money supply sufficiently to match the projected productivity of AI/robotics is for the money to be issued directly by the Treasury.
This is not a radical new idea. It is authorized in the U.S. Constitution, which provides in Article 1, Sec. 8, that “The Congress shall have Power To … coin Money [and] regulate the Value thereof .…” Abraham Lincoln used government-issued “Greenbacks” to avoid a crippling debt to British-backed bankers. Debt-free government-issued money was also the funding mechanism by which the American colonists succeeded in creating a thriving economy and liberating themselves from the oppressive yoke of the British Empire.
In his 1729 pamphlet “A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper-Currency,” Benjamin Franklin argued that a lack of currency was a tax on industrious farmers and producers, and that a reliable, locally issued paper currency was the “oil” for the gears of trade. The “Nature and Necessity” of this currency was to facilitate the movement of goods between neighbors. Franklin observed that the British strategy of keeping the colonies short of cash was a method of economic suppression. By forcing the colonies to use gold and silver, which were constantly drained back to London to pay for imports, the Crown kept the colonies in a state of permanent debt and low productivity. When the money supply matched the productive capacity of the people, universal prosperity resulted without inflation.
This logic evolved into the “American System of Political Economy” championed by Henry Carey, economic advisor to Abraham Lincoln. He wrote:
In the context of the 21st century, the “oil” that best lowers the friction of trade is debt-free government-issued money similar to Lincoln’s Greenbacks and colonial scrip. Rather than implementing a radical financial innovation, we would be returning to our roots.
Inflation or Deflation?
The chief objection to the colonies’ paper “scrip” was that they tended to over-print, so that “demand” (money) outstripped supply. Too much money chasing too few goods produced price inflation. But in the 21st century, we will soon have the opposite problem: too little money chasing too many goods. Machines don’t need food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical treatment or other services. So who will buy those goods and services?
Money needs to be issued to human consumers, and not just to a few wealthy human consumers serving as debt brokers thriving on interest. To create sufficient demand for the voluminous output of AI/robotics, it needs to go to the whole national population, evenly distributed. Not only can UHI work in that sort of abundant supply without producing price inflation; it is actually essential to prevent deflation.
In a conversation on X, Musk wrote:
As paraphrased on Yahoo Finance (reposted from Benzinga), Musk wrote that handing out more dollars becomes a problem only when the economy’s supply of goods and services fails to surge alongside the money supply. His claim is that AI and robotics could lift production so sharply that the bigger risk would be falling prices, not rising ones.
But aren’t falling prices a good thing? In this case, no. Prices would be falling due to a lack of demand, meaning producers can’t find customers for their products. They wind up laying off workers and eventually going bankrupt. When spread across the whole economy, the result is a deflationary spiral: prices fall, businesses lose revenue, and the economy contracts, not because production is inadequate but because purchasing power is insufficient. The result is recession or depression. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, food was rotting in the fields while people were starving, because they were out of work and had no money to spend.
Job cuts from AI are already happening. According to the same Benzinga article:
Robert Reich reports that wages are around two-thirds of the typical corporation’s total cost, and that in the first four months of 2026, big U.S. corporations cut over 128,000 jobs.
How Soon Will All This Happen?
Another Benzinga article, reposted on Yahoo Finance on March 16, detailed Musk’s projected time frame:
Speaking remotely to the Abundance Summit last week, Musk told XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis that the global economy is on the verge of an explosion so massive it defies historical precedent.
Ray Kurzweil, author of The Singularity Is Near, sees AI reaching Artificial General Intelligence (human-level intelligence across virtually all domains) by 2029, and full transformative abundance by 2045.
Other experts question these time projections, but a radical transformation of traditional manufacturing and trade is likely to happen sometime in the reasonably near future. The question is, will the money system transition soon enough to rescue all the laid-off workers from homelessness and famine?
The Sovereign Wealth Fund Alternative
There is another model for distributing the gains of automation, one that can be phased in gradually as the AI workforce expands. It comes from Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. In an ironic twist, Altman and Musk, who jointly founded OpenAI in 2015, are now locked in a high-profile legal battle over whether Altman diverted Musk’s $44 million investment to transform what was conceived as a nonprofit “for the benefit of humanity” into a highly lucrative for-profit enterprise.
That dispute aside, Altman’s alternative model for sharing AI-generated wealth is a national sovereign wealth fund seeded by the profits of AI and robotics. His proposed American Equity Fund would take public stakes in the companies and technologies driving automation, capture a portion of the resulting productivity gains, and distribute them as universal dividends. The Fund would not replace a Universal High Income but would complement it.
This approach has several advantages. It ties payments directly to real output, scales automatically with productivity, and can be introduced gradually, avoiding the shock of issuing large payments before the supply side has fully expanded. It would resemble the Alaska Permanent Fund, which distributes oil revenues to residents, except that here the resource would be the most powerful general-purpose technology since electricity.
Conclusion: A New Monetary Logic for a New Productive Era
For centuries, money has been issued as a claim against the future productivity of human labor, repaid from the income that labor generates. The logic of this debt-based system collapses when machines become the primary producers of goods and services. Then the limiting factor becomes purchasing power — the ability of human beings to access the abundance their own technologies create. That requires a monetary architecture that expands with output rather than debt, and distributes income not through wages alone but through mechanisms tied to the productive capacity of the whole system.
Universal High Income and a sovereign wealth fund are two ways of doing that. One ensures a stable floor of demand; the other ensures that the public shares in the gains of automation. Both would be grounded in real production. But for the public to have access to those gains, the money supply needs to expand in proportion to the expanding pool of goods and services. This can be done by restoring the innovation our forefathers baked into the Constitution: debt-free money issued by the government itself.
How to fund a UHI without triggering inflation or driving the government into bankruptcy is the first objection critics raise, but there are others. They argue that people would stop working or stop learning, that society would collapse into idleness or chaos, that life would lose meaning without jobs, that the government would have the power to control how people spend their money. Will a UHI ring in the promised utopia or lock us into a state-controlled digital prison? Part 2 of this article will address those concerns.
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This article was first posted as an original to ScheerPost.com. Ellen Brown is an attorney, founder of the Public Banking Institute, and author of thirteen books including Web of Debt, The Public Bank Solution, and Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. Her 400+ blog articles are posted at EllenBrown.com.tom of Form
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary | Tagged: AI automation economy, AI job displacement, American Equity Fund, debt-free money, deflation risk, Elon Musk UHI proposal, Greenbacks history, monetary reform, national debt crisis, Sam Altman proposal, sovereign wealth fund, Treasury-issued currency, Universal basic income | Leave a comment »