Public Banks for our Communities: Building Economic Democracy! 

Overthrow the Speculators

"We can wrest back control of our economy, and finally our political system, from corporate speculators only by building local movements that decentralize economic power through the creation of hundreds of publicly owned state, county and city banks.

The establishment of city, regional and state banks, such as the state public bank in North Dakota, permits localities to invest money in community projects rather than hand it to speculators. It keeps property and sales taxes, along with payrolls for public employees and pension funds, from lining the pockets of speculators such as Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein. Money, instead of engorging the bank accounts of the few, is leveraged to fund schools, restore infrastructure, sustain systems of mass transit and develop energy self-reliance.

The Public Banking Institute, founded by Ellen Brown, Marc Armstrong and other grass-roots activists are attempting to build a system of public banks. States such as Vermont and Washington and cities such as Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Reading, Pa., have begun public banking initiatives. Public banks return economic power, and by extension political power, to the citizens. And because they are local they are possible. These and other grass-roots revolts, including sustainable agriculture, will be the brush fires that will, if they succeed, ignite the overthrow of the corporate state.

"The debate about public or private control of the monetary system has been going on for hundreds of years," Armstrong, the executive director of the Public Banking Institute, said when I reached him by phone. "The American Revolution had everything to do with who controlled our economic destiny. The money supply is central to that control. North Dakota has proven that a state can use a public bank to further the economic interests of its people. North Dakota funds its own infrastructure and capital investment projects. It provides funding for commercial lending throughout the state. It develops the areas of its economy it wants to prioritize, areas that are often not funded by private banks."" -- Chris Hedges.

Read more here: "Overthrow the Speculators"

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How Big Banks Run the World - At Your Expense

 "Once you realize money must be and is regularly created and expanded, then the interesting questions begin to occur - like "How is it done?" and "Who benefits from it?"

 Step One: Most people think of "money" as something real, something that is kind of like gold or silver or anything that has intrinsic value. Allowing for a very, very few minor exceptions, that is simply not what "money" is.

 "Money" in the real world is a piece of paper (or electronic version of the same) that is a promissory note - a promise to pay you - that legally must be accepted by anyone to whom it is given to settle a debt. Behind this promise is the federal government in two very big ways: First, the government itself stands behind the promise as the party that will pay what it says it will pay on the piece of paper. 

 Second, the government ensures that everyone must accept this promise if the piece of paper is handed over when you buy something or settle a debt.

 So, money is a promise to pay? Yes and that is all it is - but that is huge, especially when backed and enforced by the government.

 Once you fully grasp this simple truth, things get very, very interesting."

  Read More Here