ELLEN BROWN - Green Party Candidate for Treasurer of California 2014

"From Austerity to Prosperity: Why I'm Running for California State Treasurer in 2014" by Ellen Brown

Governor Jerry Brown and his staff are exchanging high-fives over balancing California’s budget, but the people on whose backs it was balanced are not rejoicing. The state’s high-wire act has been called “the ultimate in austerity budgets.”

Welfare payments, health care for the poor, and benefits for the elderly and disabled have been slashed. State workers have been downsized. School districts in need of cash have been reduced to borrowing through “capital appreciation bonds” bearing 300% interest. In one notorious case, the Santa Ana school district actually borrowed at 1,000% interest. And the governor acknowledges that California still faces a “wall of debt” amounting to $28 billion. Some analysts put it much higher than that.

At the end of the 20th century, California was ranked the sixth largest economy in the world. By 2012, it had slipped to number twelve. It is coming back up, in part because European countries are falling further into recession; but California’s poverty rate remains the highest in the country. More than eight million Californians struggle to meet their daily needs, and one in four children lives in poverty. Income inequality is higher in the nation’s most populous state than in almost any other.

California cannot solve its budget problems by slashing services that have already been cut to the bone or raising sales taxes that hurt the poor far more than the rich. We are fighting over a pie that remains too small. The pie itself needs to be expanded – and it can be.

How? By reclaiming that portion that is now siphoned off in interest and bank fees.  When tallied up at every stage of production, interest has been calculated to claim one-third of everything we buy.

How can that money be recaptured?  By owning the bank.Peoples_Bank.jpg

The approach was pioneered in North Dakota, the only state to escape the 2008 banking crisis. North Dakota has the lowest unemployment rate in the country, the lowest foreclosure rate, the lowest default rate on credit card debt, and no state debt at all. It is also the only state to own its own bank.

In the fall of 2011, a bill for a feasibility study for a state-owned bank passed both houses of the California legislature. The Public Banking Institute, which I founded and chair, was instrumental in helping to get the bill as far as it got.  But it died when Jerry Brown vetoed it.  His rationale was that we already have a banking committee, and that the matter could be explored in-house. Needless to say, however, we have heard no more about it since.  

I am therefore running for California State Treasurer on a state bank platform, along with Laura Wells, who is running for Controller. We are throwing our bonnets in the ring for the opportunity to show the Governor or his successor that a state-owned bank can be our ticket to returning California to the abundance it once enjoyed.

I was a recipient of that abundance myself. I got my undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley in the 1960s, when tuition was free; and my law degree at UCLA Law School in the 1970s, when tuition was $700 a year.  Today it is $13,000 and $45,000 annually, respectively, for in-state students.  In the 1960s, the governor of California was Jerry Brown’s father Pat Brown, a New Deal visionary who believed that investment in education, infrastructure and local business was an investment in the future.  Our goal is to revive that optimistic vision in 2014.

We are running on the endorsement of the Green Party – along with Luis Rodriguez for governor and David Curtis for secretary of state – because Green Party candidates take no corporate money. Candidates who take corporate money – and that means nearly all conventional candidates – are beholden to large corporate interests and cannot properly represent the interests of the disenfranchised 99%.

The North Dakota Model: Banking that Supports Rather Than Exploits the Local Economy

California’s revenues are currently parked in those very largest of corporations, Wall Street banks. These out-of-state banks use our giant asset pool for their own speculative purposes, and the funds are at risk of confiscation in the event of a “bail-in.”

In North Dakota, by contrast, all of the state’s revenues are deposited by law in the state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND). The BND is set up as a DBA of the state (“North Dakota doing business as the Bank of North Dakota”), which means all of the state’s capital is technically the bank’s capital. The bank uses its copious capital and deposit pool to generate credit for local purposes.

The BND is a major money-maker for the state, returning a sizable dividend annually to the treasury. Every year since the 2008 banking crisis, it has reported a return on investment of between 17 percent and 26 percent. The BND also provides what is essentially interest-free credit for state projects, since the state owns the bank and gets the interest back. The BND partners with local banks rather than competing with them, strengthening their capital and deposit bases and allowing them to keep loans on their books rather than having to sell them off to investors. This practice allowed North Dakota to avoid the subprime crisis that destroyed the housing market in other states.

Consider the awesome potential for California, with its massive capital and deposit bases. California has over $200 billion stashed in a variety of funds identified in its 2012 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), including $58 billion managed by the Treasurer in a Pooled Money Investment Account currently earning a meager 0.264% annually. It also has over $400 billion in its pension funds (CalPERS and CalSTRS).

California’s population of 37 million is more than 50 times that of North Dakota. In 2010, the BND had about $4,500 in deposits and $4,200 in loans per capita.  Multiplying 37 million by $4,200, a State Bank of California could, in theory, generate $155.4 billion in credit for the state; and this credit would effectively be interest-free free, since the state would own the bank.

What could California do with $155 billion in interest-free credit? One possibility would be to refinance its ominous “wall of debt” at 0%. A debt that is interest-free can be rolled over indefinitely without cost to the taxpayers.

Another possibility would be to fund public projects interest-free. Eliminating interest has been shown to reduce the cost of public projects by 35% or more.

Take, for example, the San Francisco Bay Bridge earthquake retrofitting boondoggle, which was originally slated to cost about $6 billion. Interest and bank fees wound up adding another $6 billion to the overall cost to taxpayers. Funding through its own bank could have saved the state $6 billion or 50% on this project.

Then there is the state’s bullet train fiasco, which has been beset with delays, cost overruns, and funding issues. As with the Bay Bridge, costs are projected to double as a result of compounding interest on long-term bonds, imposing huge hidden costs on the next generation of taxpayers. By funding the bullet train through a state-owned bank, its costs, too, could be reduced by 50%.

Public banking models globally and historically are explored in my books The Web of Debt (first published in 2007) and The Public Bank Solution (published in 2013). I have also written over 200 articles on this and related subjects, which can be found on my blog at ellenbrown.com.  

Please visit:
https://www.facebook.com/EllenBrownAuthor

ABOUT ELLEN'S LATEST BOOK 'THE PUBLIC BANK SOLUTION'...

WHAT WALL STREET DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW

Shock waves from one Wall Street scandal after another have completely disillusioned us with our banking system; yet we cannot do without banks. Nearly all money today is simply bank credit. Economies run on it, and it is created when banks make loans. The main flaw in the current model is that private profiteers have acquired control of the credit spigots. They can cut off the flow, direct it to their cronies, and manipulate it for personal gain at the expense of the producing economy. The benefits of bank credit can be maintained while eliminating these flaws, through a system of banks operated as public utilities, serving the public interest and returning their profits to the public. This book looks at the public bank alternative, and shows with examples from around the world and through history that it works admirably well, providing the key to sustained high performance for the economy and well-being for the people.

Ellen Brown is an attorney, president of the Public Banking Institute, and author of twelve books including the bestselling Web of Debt. In The Public Bank Solution, her latest book, she explores successful public banking models historically and globally. Her 200+ credit blog articles are at https://ellenbrown.com/ She is currently running for California State Treasurer on the Green Party ticket.  Ellen is also hosting a radio show with Walt McRee, “It’s Our Money,” on Progressive Radio Network at noon PST/3pm EST every second Wednesday.

Dr. Steven Zarit has done considerable research as regards how the stress experienced by family caregivers can best be managed. His recent research focuses upon the benefits that caregivers derive when their elder attends a day care facility. This arrangement allows them a valuable respite from their caregiving efforts. His studies indicate that having this support even results in caregivers' level of stress hormones decreasing. 

Dr. Zarit developed the Zarit Burden interview that measures the extent to which caregiving might be placing a "burden" upon those who accept this "responsibility." It has been used extensively in both therapeutic and research settings. 

Hélène Cardona is a writer, actress and producer. She played Françoise ‘Fuffi’ in Lasse Hallström’s Chocolat and Candy in Lawrence Kasdan’s Mumford. Other roles include Law & Order, A Good Year, Enough, The Bold and the Beautiful, Pan Am, Chuck, Nikita, Stealing Roses, & more. Voice credits include X-Men Days of Future Past, Mad Max Fury Road, Muppets Most Wanted, The Blacklist, World War Z, Red 2, Happy Feet 2, The Muppets, Hereafter, Inception, Inglourious Basterds, The Interpreter, The Bourne Supremacy & many more. For Serendipity she co-wrote with director Peter Chelsom and composer Alan Silvestri the song Lucienne, which she also sang.

Hélène is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and also trained with Ellen Burstyn and Sandra Seacat at the Actors’ Studio. She performed the lead in plays at The Actors’ Studio, The Players Club, The Naked Angels and UBU Theatre Rep. in New York.

She co-wrote the screenplay Primate with John FitzGerald, based on his novel. Her most recent book is Dreaming My Animal Selves.

She attended Hamilton College, where she also taught French and Spanish, and the Sorbonne, where she earned a Master’s in American Literature. She received fellowships from the Goethe Institut and the Universidad Internacional de Andalucía.

She’s fluent in French, Spanish, German, English, Italian and Greek, and has lived in Switzerland, England, France, Wales, Monaco, Germany, Spain, and the United States.

She can be currently seen in the documentary Femme: Women Healing the World, which she co-produced, with Maria Bello, Marianne Williamson and Sharon Stone.

Albert Einstein is most famous for proving the relationship between Time and Space, known as the Law of Relativity or E=MC². The power concealed within the core of that remarkable theory has been incorporated into a dynamic approach to living called the Personal Time-Map System now being introduced to the world at by Rev. Thabiti, the system’s inventor.

“Where” a given person is right now can be mapped out geographically, but “when” that person exists is a function of their Personal Time-Map. Personal Time-Mapping (PTM) does not predict which direction a person will choose, but it does reveal what will happen—or what someone might expect—as he or she moves through each new time period on that person’s Time-Map. The Time-Map shows an individual’s movement through time in the same way a map of a country would show that same individual’s movement through space.

Join us for a fascinating discussion on The Personal Time-Map System — An Holistic Approach to Helping Guide Life’s Decisions

On Sunday, May 25, 2014 - Professor Lois Weiner, PhD will be back - but from England - with her guest, Mary Compton, President of Teacher Solidarity to continue speaking about the global assault on teaching, teachers and their unions.

"Education in almost every country in the world is subject to the grip of neo-liberal education 'reform' which is slowly starving out public schooling, promoting privatisation, destroying teacher professionalism and aims only to produce a minimally educated workforce, which can read instructions and advertisements but is discouraged from thinking critically about the world.

Teachersolidarity is an independent website which records the resistance to such reform of teachers, their unions, communities and researchers, who are fighting to defend public and democratic education. It aims to bring such people together, through sharing experiences, learning from one another and giving and receiving solidarity."

Lois Weiner is a professor of education at New Jersey City University, where she coordinates a Master's degree in Urban Education for experienced teachers. She has published widely on urban teacher education, school reform, and teacher unionism and is a past president of the Special Interest Group on teachers' work and teachers unions of the American Educational Research Association. She taught high school for 15 years, in California and New York, and was an activist in the teachers union. Currently she is a member of the New Politics editorial board and maintains a website with information about the global project to de-professionalize teaching.

Her Story: "Throughout my work life, as a classroom teacher and union officer, then college professor and researcher, I’ve believed that teachers need to work with parents as respectful partners and stand up for social justice. I think transforming teachers unions is an essential part of that project. When teachers unions live up to their potential, they plant the seed of democracy in the schools, giving teachers voice. That’s one reason the unions are being attacked so viciously in the media.

But democracy at the school place also means sharing power with parents, community, and students. As a former teacher and parent of a child in the NYC schools, I’ve seen the inequality of the system and the marginalization of critics. It’s easy under these conditions for parents to blame teachers - and vice versa - for what are actually the system’s failings. That’s what occurs in New York City, and it’s a dynamic we have to stop. Teachers Unite, from its inception, has been committed to bringing teachers, students, parents, and community together as allies in fighting for social justice in the schools and in our city.

Today more than ever we need to create mutually respectful relations between teachers unions and communities who want quality schools for their children. Many teachers are fearful of speaking out for kids. Others are just starting to realize the extent of the danger facing us. We need to build a social movement that pushes back on reforms that use the rhetoric of equal opportunity to privatize our schools, increase competition for scarce resources, and worsen conditions for the vast majority of students.

Teachers Unite embodies my goals for education, and I am proud to have served on its Board of Directors. I think its work is so essential to New York City that I make it the recipient of the royalties from my new book, “The future of our schools. Teachers unions and social justice.” We need to work fast and smart to save public education in NYC, and I think Teachers Unite is one of our best hopes to do that."

Lois Weiner, Professor
Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education
Coordinator, MA in Urban Education/Teaching and Learning
New Jersey City University
2039 Kennedy Blvd.
Jersey City, NJ 07305
201.200.2432

For over 15 years, Mr. Martell has also been one of the leading researchers and lectures specializing in ancient civilization technologies. Mr Martell’s research has been featured worldwide on numerous television and radio networks such as The Discovery Channel, Syfy Channel, and the BBC. He is currently a regular guest on the show “Ancient Aliens” on the History Channel. His latest book “Knowledge Apocalypse” is available on Amazon.com.

Most recently Mr. Martell garnered worldwide attention by recreating a working model of one of science’s most profound mysteries – the “Baghdad Battery”. Residing in the national museum of Iraq, the discovery of this 2,000 year old device suggests the modern day battery was not invented in 1800 by Count Alassandro Volt, but was in use two millennia earlier. Mr Martell’s recreation was instrumental in proving the Baghdad Battery was capable of generating current.

Lecturing throughout the world, Mr. Martell has dedicated his studies to Ancient Artifacts, Planet X, Ancient Astronauts and the structures on Mars. Due to growing interest in his research, Mr. Martell created a network, of what is now, one of the world’s most visited websites attracting over 1 million new visitors each year. The website ranks in the “Top 10″ most visited paranormal websites on the Internet according to Google.

Today, Mr. Martell is planning stages of several groundbreaking international research expeditions. The expeditions focus on gaining access to ancient locations, ancient artifacts, and other archaeological relics not currently accessible to the public. By bringing worldwide attention to these hidden artifacts, Mr. Martell hopes to usher in a new era in the Ancient Astronaut theory and the Lost Cycle Of Time.

Aside from Mr. Martell’s research and lectures, he is also the founder of Booya! Media, a successful mobile app company. Mr. Martell has founded several successful companines in the digital and mobile technology space over the last 10 years.

Steve Richards, the Australian born-Aboriginal Shaman who created “Holographic Kinetics” developed Quantum Dreamtime Healing and teaches people around the globe.  His website offers a wealth of material that is distilled from aboriginal healing going back tens of thousands of years.  

Dreamtime Healing using Holographic Kinetics is an advanced Aboriginal healing technique based on an ancient understanding of Lore. This healing modality can assist people to clear their issues by helping them to access the causes of their problems. The causes may be in this life, a past life or in one of their ancestors lives and Holographic Kinetics can help to bring them back into balance. It can also assist to clear inter-dimensional interference from a persons energy field. Steve Richards, the founder of Holographic Kinetics introduces this technique and talks about the need for us to heal our spirits from the trauma that we have carried with us through time.

​​EL–In HK, there is a similarity with Dr. Corrado Malanga’s liberation methods in that the soul/spirit must be connected with first, after which understanding on the interference issues arise through the deeper connection with Soul/Spirit. However, when this connection takes place, the heart center is “the portal to the Soul” and feelings may arise to be processed.

Steve created a free YouTube channel with a 14-part video series.  Part One, the Introduction:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im-MzS2-dbQ

Link below is Part Four. 

Youtube link: Interdimensional Interference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Texwhn91A

Rare opportunities to learn the techniques Steve has developed, are as follows:

Teaching will take place, with Steve in attendance at,

Orlando, Florida from 17^th to 23^rd August 2017, this course is already 80% full Deposits now been accepted

Edmonton Canada 26^th August to 1^st Sept 2017 

And also...

Seattle Washington from 25th set to 1st October 2017. and

Atlanta Georgia from 4^th to 10^th October  both with Sonia Las our top teacher

Steve will be talking at the “New world consciousness conference” 11^th to 13^th august, in Orlando, Florida (Sessions available at a special rate at the conference.)

Tina Malia’s prodigious talent spans many musical genres and disciplines. As a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer she has distinguished herself in styles ranging from pop to world devotional to electronic. Her own diverse and growing catalog of albums is complemented by studio and live work with iconic artists such as Carlos Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Jai Uttal, Kenny Loggins, India.Arie, Idan Raichel and Bassnectar. 

There are two unifying factors in all of this. One is Tina’s remarkable voice. An instrument of exceptional purity, it can be as tender as an angel’s sigh or as powerful as a deep ocean current. The other unifying factor in Tina’s musical universe is her vision — an all-encompassing artistic perspective that embraces many of the world’s musical cultures, languages and spiritual traditions. 

Creativity and diversity are her very lifeblood. Of Korean and Yugoslavian descent, Tina was tutored in classical piano and voice from an early age by her mother. But it was her dad who fostered her interest in choral singing and popular music forms.