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Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of 11 books. Her websites are http://WebofDebt.com, http://EllenBrown.com, and http://PublicBankingInstitute.org. In her latest book, "Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free," she shows how the power to create money has been usurped from the people and how we can get it back.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013 Bail-out Is Out, Bail-in Is In: Time for Some Publicly-owned Banks (9 comments)
The crossing of the Rubicon into the confiscation of depositor funds was not a one-off emergency measure limited to Cyprus. Similar "bail-in" policies are now appearing in multiple countries. What triggered the new rules may have been a series of game-changing events including the refusal of Iceland to bail out its banks and their depositors
Wednesday, April 10, 2013 Winner Takes All: The Super-priority Status of Derivatives (7 comments)
Cyprus-style confiscation of depositor funds has been called the "new normal." Bail-in policies are appearing in multiple countries directing failing TBTF banks to convert the funds of "unsecured creditors" into capital, including depositors. Even state and local governments deposits may be at risk. Derivatives have "super-priority" status in bankruptcy,and Dodd Frank precludes further taxpayer bailouts.
Friday, March 29, 2013 It Can Happen Here: The Confiscation Scheme Planned for US and UK Depositors (18 comments)
The government's debt is at least arguably the people's debt, since the government is there to provide services for the people. But when the banks get into trouble with their derivative schemes, they are not serving depositors, who are not getting a cut of the profits. Taking depositor funds is simply theft.
Saturday, March 23, 2013 The Battle of Cyprus: The Long-planned Deposit Confiscation Scheme (30 comments)
On Tuesday, March 19, the national legislature of Cyprus overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits as a condition for a European bailout. Reuters called it "a stunning setback for the 17-nation currency bloc," but it was a stunning victory for democracy. As Reuters quoted one 65-year-old pensioner, "The voice of the people was heard."
Monday, February 25, 2013 How the Fed Could Fix the Economy--and Why It Hasn't (20 comments)
Quantitative easing (QE) is supposed to stimulate the economy by adding money to the money supply, increasing demand. But so far, it hasn't been working. Why not? Because as practiced for the last two decades, QE does not actually increase the circulating money supply. It merely cleans up the toxic balance sheets of banks.
Thursday, February 14, 2013 How Congress Could Fix Its Budget Woes Permanently (12 comments)
As Congress struggles through one budget crisis after another, it is becoming increasingly evident that austerity doesn't work. We cannot possibly pay off a $16 trillion debt by tightening our belts, slashing public services, and raising taxes
Saturday, January 19, 2013 The Trillion Dollar Coin: Joke or Game Changer? (40 comments)
Most commentators have missed the real significance of the trillion dollar coin. It is not just about political gamesmanship. For centuries, a secret battle has raged over who should create the nation's money supply. Today, all that is left of the US Treasury's money-creating power is the ability to mint coins.
Thursday, December 20, 2012 Fiscal Cliff: Time to Call Their Bluff (32 comments)
The self-induced austerity crisis is a diversion from the real crises, including unemployment, the housing crisis, a bloated military, and unrepayable debt. Slashing services, selling off public assets, and raising taxes won't cure these ills. To maintain a sustainable and productive economy requires a visionary leap into the new. A new economy needs new methods of public financing.
Saturday, December 8, 2012 Exploring the Public Bank Option for Scotland (13 comments)
The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and the Bank of Scotland have been pillars of Scotland's economy and culture for over three centuries. So when the RBS was nationalized by the London-based UK government following the 2008 banking crisis, and the Bank of Scotland was acquired by the London-based Lloyds Bank, it came as a shock to the Scots. They no longer owned their oldest and most venerable banks.
Friday, November 9, 2012 It's the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World (40 comments)
In the 2012 edition of Occupy Money released last week, Professor Margrit Kennedy writes that a stunning 35% to 40% of everything we buy goes to interest. This interest goes to bankers, financiers, and bondholders, who take a 35% to 40% cut of our GDP. That helps explain how wealth is systematically transferred from Main Street to Wall Street.
Thursday, October 4, 2012 QE Infinity: What's It All About, Mr. Bernanke? (12 comments)
QE3, the Federal Reserve's third round of quantitative easing, is so open-ended that it is being called QE Infinity. Doubts about its effectiveness are surfacing even on Wall Street.
Saturday, September 22, 2012 Why QE3 Won't Jumpstart the Economy -- and What Would (10 comments)
The economy could use a good dose of "aggregate demand"--new spending money in the pockets of consumers--but QE3 won't do it. Neither will it trigger the dreaded hyperinflation. In fact, it won't do much at all. There are better alternatives.
Thursday, September 6, 2012 The Myth That Japan Is Broke: The World's Largest "Debtor" Is Now the World's Largest Creditor (5 comments)
Japan's debt-to-GDP ratio is nearly 230%, the worst of any major country in the world. Yet it remains the world's largest creditor, with net foreign assets of $3.19 trillion. In 2010, its GDP per capita was more than that of France, Germany, the U.K. and Italy. While China's economy is now larger than Japan's because of its population (1.3 billion vs 128 million), China's $5,414 GDP per capita is only 12% of Japan's $45,920.
Thursday, August 23, 2012 Fixing the Mortgage Mess: The Game-changing Implications of Bain v. MERS (7 comments)
San Bernardino and other counties are drowning in debt from a crisis created when Wall Street's real estate securitization bubble burst. By using eminent domain, they can clean up the destruction of their land title records and 400 years of real property law. And by setting up their own banks, counties and other municipalities can use their own capital and revenues to generate credit for local purposes.
Saturday, July 21, 2012 Titanic Banks Hit LIBOR Iceberg: Will Lawsuits Sink the Ship? (19 comments)
At one time, calling the large multinational banks a "cartel" branded you as a conspiracy theorist. Today the banking giants are being called that and worse, not just in the major media but in court documents intended to prove the allegations as facts.
Monday, July 2, 2012 Government by the Banks, for the Banks: The ESM Coup D'Etat in Europe (4 comments)
On Friday, June 29th, German Chancellor Angela Merkel acquiesced to changes to a permanent Eurozone bailout fund--"before the ink was dry," as critics complained. Besides easing the conditions under which bailouts would be given, the concessions included an agreement that
funds intended for indebted governments could be funneled directly to stressed banks.
Thursday, June 21, 2012 Why Congress Won't Touch Jamie Dimon: JPM Derivatives Prop Up US Debt (8 comments)
The national debt is growing at $1.5 trillion per year. Ultra-low interest rates MUST be maintained to prevent the debt from overwhelming the government budget. Near-zero rates also need to be maintained because even a moderate rise would cause multi-trillion dollar derivative losses for the banks, and would remove the banks' chief income stream, the arbitrage afforded by borrowing at 0% and investing at higher rates.
Thursday, June 7, 2012 Greece and the Euro: Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover (8 comments)
The treaties binding the 17 member nations are just a set of rules, entered into by mutual agreement; and rules can be bent or broken, especially in crises. The ECB (European Central Bank) broke a litany of rules to save the banks, and so did the Federal Reserve to save Wall Street in 2008.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012 Out of the Mouths of Babes: Video of Twelve-Year-Old Money Reformer Tops a Million Views (5 comments)
The youtube video of 12 year old Victoria Grant speaking at the Public Banking in America conference last month has gone viral, topping a million views on various websites. Monetary reform--the contention that governments, not banks, should create and lend a nation's money--has rarely even made the news, so this is a first.
Saturday, May 26, 2012 Cooperative Banking, the Exciting Wave of the Future (2 comments)
Funding with low-interest loans from cooperatively owned banks leaves greater control of the company in the hands of employees who either own it or have much more say in its operation. Globally, the burgeoning movement for local, cooperatively owned and community-oriented banks is blazing the trail toward a new, sustainable form of banking.
Thursday, May 24, 2012 Cooperative Banking in the Aquarian Age (1 comments)
Banking in an age of greed is fraught with usury, fraud, and gaming the system for private ends. But there is another way to do banking, the neighborly approach of George Bailey in the classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life." Rather than feeding off the community, banking can feed the community and local economy.
Saturday, May 19, 2012 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Quiet Drama in Philadelphia (15 comments)
Last week, the city of Philadelphia's school system announced that it expects to close 40 public schools next year, and 64 schools by 2017. The school district expects to lose 40% of its current enrollment, and thousands of experienced, qualified teachers.
But corporate media in other cities made no mention of these massive school closings -- nor of those in Chicago, Atlanta, or New York City.
Friday, May 11, 2012 Social Security Checks Garnisheed for Student Debt (15 comments)
Congress cannot agree on $6 billion to save the students, yet they managed to agree in a matter of days in September 2008 to come up with $700 billion to save the banks; and the Federal Reserve found many trillions more. Estimates are that tuition could be provided free to students for a mere $30 billion annually.
Sunday, April 8, 2012 Philadelphia Freedom: Birthplace of the Constitution Takes Center Stage (3 comments)
It is well known that Philadelphia was the birthplace of the U.S. Constitution and American democracy. Less well known is that it was also the birthplace of public banking in America.
Monday, April 2, 2012 Oh Canada! Imposing Austerity on the World's Most Resource-rich Country (7 comments)
Even the world's most resource-rich country has now been caught in the debt trap. Its once-proud government programs are being subjected to radical budget cuts--cuts that could have been avoided if the government had not quit borrowing from its own central bank in the 1970s.
Friday, March 23, 2012 Wall Street Confidence Trick: The Interest Rate Swaps that Are Bankrupting Local Governments (7 comments)
For more than a decade, banks and insurance companies convinced local governments, hospitals, universities and other non-profits that interest rate swaps would lower interest rates on bonds sold for public projects such as roads, bridges and schools. Interest rates fell to historically low levels. It was a deliberate, manipulated move by the Fed to save the banks from their own folly in precipitating the credit crisis of 2008.
Friday, March 9, 2012 Public Sector Banks: From Black Sheep to Global Leaders (2 comments)
Public sector banking is a concept that is relatively unknown in the United States. Only one state--North Dakota--owns its own bank. North Dakota is also the only state to escape the credit crisis of 2008, sporting a budget surplus every year since; but skeptics write this off to coincidence or other factors. To determine whether government-owned banks are assets or liabilities, then, we need to look farther afield.
Monday, February 27, 2012 Move Our Money: New State Bank Bills Address Credit and Housing Crises (3 comments)
Seventeen states have now introduced bills for state-owned banks, and others are in the works. Hawaii's innovative state bank bill addresses the foreclosure mess. County-owned banks are being proposed that would tackle the housing crisis by exercising the right of eminent domain on abandoned and foreclosed properties.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street (10 comments)
The Houses of Morgan, Goldman and the other Big Five are justifiably worried right now, because an "event of default" declared on European sovereign debt could jeopardize their $32 trillion derivatives scheme.
Sunday, February 5, 2012 Why the AGs Must Not Settle: Robo-signing Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg (6 comments)
A foreclosure settlement between five major banks guilty of "robo-signing" and the attorneys general of the 50 states is pending for Monday, February 6 th ; but it is still not clear if all the AGs will sign.
Thursday, January 26, 2012 America's Shadow Banking System, A Web of Financial Fraud (8 comments)
The Wall Street Journal reported on January 19th that the Obama Administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the "robo-signing" scandal. The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed. Investigation reveals that it did not just ha
Sunday, January 15, 2012 Occupy the Neighborhood: How Counties Can Use Land Banks and Eminent Domain (5 comments)
Counties have been cheated out of millions of dollars in recording fees, and their title records are in hopeless disarray. Meanwhile, foreclosed and abandoned homes are blighting neighborhoods. Straightening out the records and restoring the homes to occupancy is clearly in the public interest, and the burden is on local government to do it. But how? New legal developments are presenting some innovative alternatives.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012 Saving the Post Office: The Models of Kiwibank and Japan Post (4 comments)
Claiming the Postal Service is bankrupt, critics are pushing legislation that would defuse the postal crisis by breaking the backs of the postal workers' unions and mandating widespread layoffs.
Friday, December 16, 2011 The Way to Occupy a Bank is to Own One (6 comments)
The campaign to "move your money" has gotten a groundswell of support. Having greater impact would be to "move our money" -- move our local government revenues out of Wall Street banks into our own publicly-owned banks.
Friday, December 9, 2011 Pulling Back the Curtain on the Wall Street Money Machine (18 comments)
On November 27, Bloomberg News reported the results of its successful case to force the Federal Reserve to reveal the lending details of its 2008-09 bank bailout. Bloomberg reported that by March 2009, the Fed had committed $7.77 trillion in below-market loans and guarantees to rescuing the financial system; and that these nearly interest-free loans came without strings attached.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011 The European Central Bank Fiddles While Rome Burns (6 comments)
"To some people, the European Central Bank seems like a fire department that is letting the house burn down to teach the children not to play with matches." So wrote Jack Ewing in the New York Times last week . . . .
Saturday, November 19, 2011 Super Committee Deadlock: Heads They Win, Tails We Lose (9 comments)
Whether the super committee reaches agreement or not, the deficit hawks win. If they agree, either $1.2 trillion gets cut from the budget or taxes go up by that amount; and the committee co-chair has categorically stated taxes are not going up, so that means the budget will be cut.
Saturday, November 12, 2011 Time for an Economic Bill of Rights (40 comments)
Henry Ford said, "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." We are beginning to understand, and Occupy Wall Street looks like the beginning of the revolution.
Saturday, October 22, 2011 Qe4: Forgive Student Debt (35 comments)
Among the demands of the Wall Street protesters is student debt forgiveness--a debt "jubilee." Occupy Philly has a "Student Loan Jubilee Working Group," and other groups are studying the issue. Commentators say debt forgiveness is impossible. Who would foot the bill? But there is one deep pocket that could pull it off--the Federal Reserve. . . . I
Friday, October 14, 2011 THE PUBLIC OPTION IN BANKING: ANOTHER LOOK AT THE GERMAN MODEL (18 comments)
Publicly-owned banks were instrumental in funding Germany's "economic miracle" after the devastation of World War II. Although the German public banks have been targeted in the last decade for takedown by their private competitors, the model remains a viable alternative to the private profiteering being protested on Wall Street today.
Friday, September 16, 2011 California Legislature Passes Bill to Study State-owned Bank (7 comments)
AB 750, California's bill to study the feasibility of establishing a state-owned bank that would receive deposits of state funds, has passed both houses of the legislature and is now on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown awaiting his signature. It could be the governor's chance to restore the state to its former glory. . . .
Sunday, September 11, 2011 War--The Fiscal Stimulus of Last Resort (12 comments)
Protesters have been trying to stop the military juggernaut ever since the end of World War II, yet the war machine is more powerful and influential than ever. Why? The veiled powers pulling the strings no doubt have their own dark agenda, but why has our much-trumpeted system of political democracy not been able to stop them?
The answer may involve our individualistic, laissez-faire brand of capitalism . . . .
Saturday, September 3, 2011 North Dakota's Economic "Miracle"-- It's Not Oil (1 comments)
Many states have oil, but North Dakota has something no other states have -- its own state-owned bank. States that deposit their revenues and invest their capital in large Wall Street banks are giving this economic opportunity away.
Friday, August 19, 2011 S&P and the Bilderbergers: All Part of the Plan? (15 comments)
The volatility in the market is unprecedented. Many economists have been pointing out that the panic after the S&P downgrade resembled the fear that swept financial markets after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008. But on Tuesday, August 9, the market gained more points from its low than it lost on Monday. Why? A tug of war seemed to be going on between two titanic forces . . . .
Sunday, August 7, 2011 The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business (31 comments)
It used to be that when the Fed Chairman spoke, the market listened; but the Chairman has lost his mystique. Now when the market speaks, politicians listen. Hopefully they heard what the market just said: government cutbacks are bad for business. The government needs to spend more, not less. Fortunately, there are viable ways to do this while still balancing the budget.
Sunday, July 31, 2011 Forget Compromise: The Debt Ceiling Is Unconstitutional (65 comments)
The debt ceiling crisis can be averted by enforcing the Fourteenth Amendment, which mandates the government to pay its debts already incurred, including pensions. That means Social Security, which IS an "entitlement," in the original sense of the word. We're entitled to it because we've paid for it with taxes.
Saturday, July 16, 2011 Why Banks Aren't Lending: The Silent Liquidity Squeeze (20 comments)
Details about the excess reserves of Federal Reserve Banks. Explains what factors seem to be causing a constriction of credit in spite there being excess reserves. Contrasts what is not working in FED policy with what is working with the Banking sector of North Dakota
Monday, July 11, 2011 Why QE2 Failed: The Money Went Offshore (3 comments)
Describes why Banks have not been lending and what they have been doing with all the QE1 & QE2 money which the FED provided them. Offers solutions to bringing down the national debt and fixing the economy.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 How the Bailout Killed Local Lending -- And How Some States Hope to Bring It Back (7 comments)
The Wall Street bailout was supposed to keep credit flowing to Main Street, but it has wound up having the opposite effect. Local businesses have traditionally been the main engines for increasing employment, and they need bank credit for their working capital; but today credit to local businesses has collapsed nearly everywhere. That's why 14 states are now considering state-owned banks to get credit flowing again.
Thursday, June 23, 2011 THE MILITARY AS A JOBS PROGRAM: THERE ARE MORE EFFICIENT WAYS TO STIMULATE AN ECONOMY (5 comments)
The military is the nation's largest and most firmly entrenched entitlement program, one that takes half of every tax dollar. The reason massive military spending is considered the most "obvious" way to produce a fiscal stimulus is simply that it is the only form of direct government spending that gets a pass from the deficit hawks.
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 THE GLOBAL DEBT CRISIS: HOW WE GOT IN IT AND HOW TO GET OUT (14 comments)
Contrary to popular belief, particularly amid the continuing financial crisis, most of our money today is not created by governments. It is created by private banks as loans. There are more sustainable ways to run a banking and credit system. It merely requires taxpayers to take back their money - and their power - from private banks.
Sunday, May 29, 2011 INVITING CHAOS: playing chicken with the debt ceiling (2 comments)
A game of Russian roulette is being played with the national debt ceiling. Fire the wrong chamber of the gun, and the result could be the second Great Depression. We have been frightened into believing that government debt is a bad thing, but nearly all money today originates as debt. The public debt is the people's money, and today the people are coming up short.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 INFLATION FEARS: REAL OR HYSTERIA? (11 comments)
Far from inflation being the problem, the money supply has shrunk and we are in a deflationary bind. The money supply needs to be pumped back up to generate jobs and productivity; and in the system we have today, that is done by issuing bonds, or debt.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 CHENEY WAS RIGHT ABOUT ONE THING: DEFICITS DON'T MATTER (13 comments)
"Deficit terrorists" are gutting governments and forcing the privatization of public assets, all in the name of "deficit reduction." But deficits aren't actually a bad thing. In today's monetary scheme, in which most money comes from debt, debt and deficits are actually necessary to have a stable money supply. The public debt is the people's money.
Thursday, April 14, 2011 Libya: All About Oil, or All About Central Banking? (59 comments)
If the Gaddafi government goes down, it will be interesting to watch whether the new central bank joins the BIS, whether the nationalized oil industry gets sold off to investors, and whether education and health care continue to be free.
Saturday, April 2, 2011 The World's Largest Publicly-owned Bank: How It Could Save Japan (2 comments)
The Japanese government can afford its enormous debt because it owns the bank that is its principal creditor. But competitors are attempting to force Japan Post Bank's privatization. If they succeed, they could propel the country into debt servitude along with other credit-strapped nations.
Monday, March 28, 2011 KEEPING THE STATE'S MONEY IN THE STATE: AN ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION TO THE BUDGET CRISIS (9 comments)
Eight states now have bills pending either to form state-owned banks or to do feasibility studies to determine their potential. State-owned banks could be a win-win for everyone interested in a thriving local economy.
Monday, March 7, 2011 How Wisconsin Could Turn Austerity into Prosperity -- Own a Bank (4 comments)
As states struggle to meet their budgets, public pensions are on the chopping block; but they needn't be. States can keep their pension funds intact and leverage them into many times that sum in loans, just as Wall Street banks do. They can do this by forming their own banks, following the lead of North Dakota, the only state either to have its own bank or to have a major budget surplus.
Monday, January 24, 2011 WASHINGTON STATE JOINS MOVEMENT FOR PUBLIC BANKING (8 comments)
Bills were introduced on January 18 in both the House and Senate of the Washington State Legislature that add Washington to the growing number of states now actively moving to create public banking facilities.
Thursday, January 13, 2011 The Fed has Spoken: There will be no bailout of Main St (8 comments)
When the banks were in trouble 2 years ago, the Fed came up with $12.3 trillion to bail them out. Now the states and cities are in trouble. The total deficit is less than 1% of that amount. Still, Fed Chairman Bernanke says he won't do it because he "has no mandate". Who does the Fed work for, America or the Banks? Could there be a starker demonstration?
Friday, December 24, 2010 AUSTERITY FAILS IN EUROLAND: TIME FOR SOME "DEFICIT EASING" (2 comments)
The Greek bailout was supposed to be an isolated case, a test of the EU's ability to quarantine an infected member, preventing it from spreading "debt contagion." But that was before Ireland failed . . . .
Thursday, December 2, 2010 IS QE2 THE ROAD TO ZIMBABWE-STYLE HYPERINFLATION? NOT LIKELY (5 comments)
Unlike Zimbabwe, the U.S. can easily get the currency it needs without being beholden to anyone. But wouldn't that dilute the value of the currency? No.
Saturday, November 20, 2010 WHAT'S REALLY BEHIND QE2? (5 comments)
The deficit hawks are circling, hovering over QE2, calling it just another inflationary bank bailout. But unlike QE1, QE2 is not about saving the banks. It's about funding the federal deficit without increasing the interest tab, something that may be necessary in this gridlocked political climate just to keep the government functioning.
Saturday, November 6, 2010 FORECLOSUREGATE COULD FORCE BANK NATIONALIZATION (12 comments)
For two years, politicians have danced around the nationalization issue, but ForeclosureGate may be the last straw. The megabanks are too big to fail, but they aren't too big to reorganize as federal institutions serving the public interest.
Saturday, October 30, 2010 HOW CHINA BUYS OUR DEBT WHILE BURYING ITS OWN (4 comments)
China may be as heavily in debt as we are. It just has a different way of keeping its books -- which makes a high-profile political ad sponsored by Citizens Against Government Waste, a fiscally conservative think tank, particularly ironic. . . .
Saturday, October 30, 2010 Time For A New Theory Of Money (11 comments)
By understanding that money is simply credit, we unleash it as a powerful tool for our communities.
Saturday, October 9, 2010 FORECLOSUREGATE (16 comments)
By most reports, it would appear that the voluntary suspension of foreclosures is underway to review simple, careless procedural errors. Errors which the conscientious banks are hastening to correct. Even Gretchen Morgenson in the New York Times characterizes the problem as "flawed paperwork." But those errors go far deeper than mere sloppiness. They are concealing a massive fraud.
Saturday, September 18, 2010 BASEL III: Tightening the Noose on Credit (3 comments)
If the big banks that brought you the current credit crisis can already meet the new requirements, what exactly does Basel III achieve, beyond shaking down their smaller competitors?
Thursday, September 9, 2010 How to Reverse a Deflation: Helicopter Ben Needs to Drop Some Money on Main Street (3 comments)
The Fed is proposing another round of "quantitative easing," although the first round failed to reverse deflation. It failed because the money went into the coffers of banks, which failed to lend it on. To reverse deflation, the money needs to be funneled directly to state and local economies.
Friday, August 20, 2010 HOMEOWNERS' REBELLION: COULD 62 MILLION HOMES BE FORECLOSURE-PROOF? (22 comments)
Over 62 million mortgages are now held in the name of MERS, an electronic recording system. A California bankruptcy court, following landmark cases in other jurisdictions, recently held that this electronic shortcut makes it impossible for banks to establish their ownership of property titles--and therefore to foreclose on mortgaged properties. The result could be 62 million homes that are foreclosure-proof.
Friday, August 6, 2010 WHAT A GOVERNMENT CAN DO WITH ITS OWN BANK: THE REMARKABLE MODEL OF THE COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA (3 comments)
Virg Bernero, the mayor of Lansing, Michigan, just won the Democratic nomination for governor of his state, making a state-owned Bank of Michigan a real possibility. Bernero is one of at least a dozen candidates promoting that solution to the states' economic woes. It is an innovative idea, with little precedent in the United States. Fortunately other precedents are available from other countries . . .
Sunday, July 25, 2010 Why "Sovereign Debt" is an Oxymoron
Last week, a Chinese rating agency downgraded U.S. debt from triple A and number one globally, to "double A with a negative outlook" and only thirteenth worldwide. The downgrade renewed fears that the sovereign debt crisis that began in Greece will soon reach America. That is the concern, but the U.S. is distinguished from Greece in that its debt is denominated in its own currency, over which it has sovereign control.
Thursday, July 15, 2010 HOW BROKERS BECAME BOOKIES: THE INSIDIOUS TRANSFORMATION OF MARKETS INTO CASINOS (1 comments)
Our forebears considered gambling to be immoral and made it a crime. Derivative trading was originally considered an illegal form of gambling. Perhaps it is time to reinstate the gambling laws, board up the derivatives casinos, and return the stock market to what it was designed to be: a means of funneling the capital of investors into productive businesses.
Friday, July 2, 2010 Deficit Terrorism as Class Warfare -- and How We Can Even the Score (2 comments)
Wall Street banks have been saved from bankruptcy by governments that are now going bankrupt themselves; but the banks are not returning the favor. Instead, they are engaged in a class war, insisting that the squeezed middle class be even further squeezed to balance over-stressed government budgets. All the perks are going to Wall Street, while Main Street slips into debt slavery.
Friday, June 18, 2010 DEFICIT TERRORISTS STRIKE IN BRITAIN -- USA NEXT? (1 comments)
Last week, Britain's new government said it would abandon the previous government's stimulus program and introduce the austerity measures required to pay down its estimated $1 trillion in debts. That means cutting public spending, laying off workers, reducing consumption, and increasing unemployment and bankruptcies. It also means shrinking the money supply, since virtually all "money" today originates as loans or debt.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 Banks Profit from Near-zero Interest Rates: Another Reason for States to Own Their Own Banks (3 comments)
While individuals, businesses and governments suffer from a credit crisis created on Wall Street, the banks responsible for the crisis are tapping into nearly-interest-free credit lines and using the money to speculate or to make commercial loans at much higher rates. By forming their own banks, states too can tap into very low interest rates, and can buffer themselves from another Lehman-style credit collapse.
Saturday, May 8, 2010 STOCK MARKET COLLAPSE: MORE GOLDMAN MARKET RIGGING? (33 comments)
Goldman and Wall Street reign. Congress appears helpless to discipline the big banks, just as the European Central Bank appears helpless to prevent the collapse of the European Union. . . . Or are they?
Tuesday, May 4, 2010 Derivatives Come to the Movies (1 comments)
s if attacks from paparazzi and star-crazed fans weren't enough, Hollywood stars may soon have a literal price put on their heads by investors in the Cantor Exchange, a real-money trading platform where people can bet on the gross profits of upcoming movies.
Monday, April 26, 2010 COMPUTERIZED FRONT RUNNING: ANOTHER GOLDMAN-DOMINATED FRAUD
While the SEC is busy investigating Goldman Sachs, it might want to look into another Goldman-dominated fraud: computerized front running using high-frequency trading programs.
Friday, April 2, 2010 CUTTING OUT THE MIDDLEMAN: The Government Is Now in the Banking Business (7 comments)
Under the student loan bill slipped into the health care bill, the federal government will be lending to students directly, saving billions of dollars and eliminating decades of corruption and exploitation.
Saturday, March 20, 2010 The Growing Movement for State-owned Banks (8 comments)
As the states' credit crisis deepens, four states have initiated bills for state-owned banks, and candidates in seven states have now included that solution in their platforms.
Thursday, March 4, 2010 IMF-STYLE AUSTERITY COMES TO AMERICA
In addition to mandatory private health insurance premiums, we may soon be hit with a "mandatory savings" tax and other belt-tightening measures urged by the President's new budget task force. These radical austerity measures are not only unnecessary but will actually make matters worse. The push for "fiscal responsibility" is based on bad economics.
Sunday, February 28, 2010 Attack of the GMOs: GMO Alfalfa Will Make Organic Dairy Impossible (7 comments)
The USDA and Secretary Vilsack, in collaboration with Monsanto, are about to lift a court-ordered ban on Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) "Roundup Ready" alfalfa. This GMO would have disastrous effects on US and global agriculture. Genetically engineered alfalfa would be the first perennial GM crop, and would result in a huge increase of toxic RoundUp in the environment.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010 Growing Number of Candidates Campaigning for State-owned Banks (7 comments)
While bank bailouts fatten Wall Street, states continue to battle the credit crisis. In the search for innovative solutions, some political candidates are proposing that states generate their own credit by setting up their own banks.
Monday, January 25, 2010 Funding Public Health Care with a Publicly Owned Bank: How Canada Did It (1 comments)
The Massachusetts gubernatorial upset means the President may have to start over with his health care bill. The good news is that there's still a chance for the public option the voters thought they would be getting. How to fund it? The way Canada did -- with credit issued by the government's own central bank.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 Compulsory Private Health Insurance: Just Another Bailout for the Financial Sector? (8 comments)
Rather than making health care affordable, the current bills focus on how to force people either to buy health insurance if they don't have it, or to pay more for it if they do. The bills are another bailout for the financial sector at the expense of the squeezed middle class.
