What History Did To Economics   History happens. Economics is a fabrication. The intersection between them is the space in which public policy and prospects emerge.  Our guest, author and historical scholar Matthew Ehret, has studied the deep historical dynamics that underpinned development of some of the primary economic views of our day such as Hayek’s Austrian austerity and Keynes’ …

Virtually all Americans share personal ties to debt of one sort or another.  While debt can be a useful tool for navigating life, it is too often a requisite resort for those who must depend on it just to get by. Students, patients, low-wage workers – the debilitating impacts and categories of debt are numerous and ubiquitous. One movement is addressing …

What Do You Know? After almost 100 years of living you’d be surprised what you might learn, especially if you’ve had the high privilege of knowing state secrets. Conclusions and insights drawn from those many years of experience are particularly valuable when they come from an iconic public leader like our guest, the Honorable Paul Hellyer, former Defense Minister of …

Transforming Banks   The history of banking is at the center of cultural evolution from Sumerian tallies of agricultural debts, to the Medici, all the way to the current Global Masters of Capital. But banks today are being called to evolve into more democratic institutions that can foster and nurture human community rather than continuing to prioritize private profits above …

The Federal Reserve and the architecture of our monetary system use private capital and financial marketeers as primary channels for getting money into our economy, while keeping the public off key fiscal playing fields. A new federal-level legislative initiative called the Public Banking Act represents a systemic breakthrough for the role of public interest financial institutions, providing access to the many …

Too Broke for Bankruptcy It’s a grim irony that only the moneyed can afford the protections of bankruptcy. Even as major companies declare bankruptcy to get relieved of overwhelming debt, expensive pension obligations and union contracts under bankruptcy protection, financially strapped individuals often can’t afford to apply for the same relief.  Enter Upsolve, a free online app designed to help people complete …

Recent decades of American politicians have sidestepped making serious national plans to invest in the country’s debilitated infrastructure. Now our country needs multiple-trillions to restore, improve and create a wide array of public infrastructure projects, from highways to high-speed broadband. A new national grassroots campaign called the National Infrastructure Bank Coalition proposes that we return to our historical routes for …

Economist Richard Wolff’s new book “The Sickness is the System” lays out the mechanics of why  capitalism inevitably produces systemic inequities and market failures despite significant market successes. Wolff’s thesis is powerfully illustrated by the economic struggling and deprivation of the current pandemic as well as recurring cycles of booms and busts that shift even more wealth to the capitalist elite.  Ellen …

The sudden passing of Kevin Zeese has removed from the stage of social, political and economic activism a powerful voice and a tireless worker. Whether leading occupation of the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC in defiance of the government’s intention to bring down their democratically-elected government, leading national efforts against war, helping launch the Occupy movement or a host of …

So says renowned economist Michael Hudson in the concluding part of our recent interview with him.  Hudson makes no bones about the deadly serious game being played by the world’s financial powers and their intention to create a new feudal economic order. Hudson sees the privatization of public assets and institutions, like the Fed’s take-over of the Treasury a hundred years …