Today’s Students–Slavery by Debt, Part 2 by Ellen Brown

Image by Glenn Halog via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 5, 2018

This is the second in a two-part article on the debt burden America’s students face. Read Part 1 here.

The lending business is heavily stacked against student borrowers. Bigger players can borrow for almost nothing, and if their investments don’t work out, they can put their corporate shells through bankruptcy and walk away. Not so with students. Their loan rates are high and if they cannot pay, their debts are not normally dischargeable in bankruptcy. Rather, the debts compound and can dog them for life, compromising not only their own futures but the economy itself.

Regulation Is Killing Community Banks by Ellen Brown

Image by Ashleigh Nushawg via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
October 30, 2017

Crushing regulations are driving small banks to sell out to the megabanks, a consolidation process that appears to be intentional. Publicly-owned banks can help avoid that trend and keep credit flowing in local economies.

Saving Illinois by Ellen Brown

Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
July 24, 2017

Illinois is teetering on bankruptcy and other states are not far behind, largely due to unfunded pension liabilities; but there are solutions. The Federal Reserve could do a round of “QE for Munis.” Or the state could turn its sizable pension fund into a self-sustaining public bank.

Deconstructing the State: Getting Small, Part 6 by Arthur D. Robbins

by Arthur D. Robbins
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained
May 9, 2017

War has indeed become perpetual and peace no longer even a fleeting wish nor a distant memory. We have become habituated to the rumblings of war and the steady drum beat of propaganda about war’s necessity and the noble motives that inspire it. We will close hospitals. We will close schools. We will close libraries and museums. We will sell off our parklands and water supply. People will sleep on the streets and go hungry. The war machine will go on.

Which Is Safer, a Public Bank or a Private Bank? by Ellen Brown + The Savings and Stability of Public Banking by Ralph Nader

Image by AK Rockefeller via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
April 11, 2017

Phil Murphy, the leading Democratic candidate for governor of New Jersey, has made a state-owned bank a centerpiece of his campaign. He says the New Jersey bank would “take money out of Wall Street and put it to work for New Jersey – creating jobs and growing the economy [by] using state deposits to finance local investments … and … support billions of dollars of critical investments in infrastructure, small businesses, and student loans – saving our residents money and returning all profits to the taxpayers.”

Don’t Imprison Amy Goodman for Journalism by David Swanson + ND Prosecutor Seeks “Riot” Charges Against Amy Goodman

Image by 350.org via Flickr

Updated: October 17, 2016

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
October 16, 2016

I’ve started a petition to the State of North Dakota that I would imagine and hope just about everyone would want to sign.

Here’s the whole text of the petition:

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Fights North Dakota Oil Pipeline by Brian Ward

Image by Peg Hunter via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Brian Ward
socialistworker.org, August 22, 2016
August 27, 2016

SOME 1,000 Native American activists from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation and across the country faced off against police and security forces protecting the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline project. Dozens of people have been arrested and assaulted by police while attempting to stop the project, and many more continue to risk arrest to protest the pipeline.

Killing Off Community Banks — Intended Consequence of Dodd-Frank? by Ellen Brown

Image by Truthout.org via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
October 21, 2015

The Dodd-Frank regulations are so lethal to community banks that some say the intent was to force them to sell out to the megabanks. Community banks are rapidly disappearing — except in North Dakota, where they are thriving.

Capitalism Is Killing The Earth And Its People by Finian Cunningham

Image by sparkleplen_t via Flickr

by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
East Africa
Crossposted from PressTV
Feb. 1, 2015

‘I see a bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightning
I see hard times today’
— John Fogerty, Bad Moon Rising (1969)

John Fogerty’s classic rock song ‘Bad Moon Rising’, from the 1960s, could be the foreboding soundtrack for what is rumbling in America’s Midwest today.

Fraud-ridden Banks Are Not L.A.’s Only Option by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 30, 2014

“Epic in scale, unprecedented in world history.” That is how William K. Black, professor of law and economics and former bank fraud investigator, describes the frauds in which JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has now been implicated. They involve more than a dozen felonies, including bid-rigging on municipal bond debt; colluding to rig interest rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars in mortgages, derivatives and other contracts; exposing investors to excessive risk; failing to disclose known risks, including those in the Bernie Madoff scandal; and engaging in multiple forms of mortgage fraud.

From Austerity to Abundance: Why I Am Running for California Treasurer by Ellen Brown

Image by 401(K) 2013 via Flickr

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Web of Debt Blog
January 15, 2014

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.

Green Light for City-owned San Francisco Bank by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Writer, Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
July 30, 2013

Image by clobby via Flickr

When the Occupiers took an interest in moving San Francisco’s money into a city-owned bank in 2011, it was chiefly on principle, in sympathy with the nationwide Move Your Money campaign.  But recent scandals have transformed the move from a political statement into a matter of protecting the city’s deposits and reducing its debt burden.  The chief roadblock to forming a municipal bank has been the concern that it was not allowed under state law, but a legal opinion  issued by Deputy City Attorney Thomas J. Owen has now overcome that obstacle.

Political Football Over Disaster Relief: Most Sandy Victims Are Left Stranded by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
January 4, 2013

Image by occupy617 via Flickr

In a shameless display of putting politics before human needs, Congress began 2013 still scrapping over a $60 billion Hurricane Sandy relief bill fully nine weeks after the disaster hit. And if the Katrina experience is any indication, the bill may not bring adequate relief to struggling and displaced homeowners even when it is finally passed.

Ensuring Scottish Sovereignty: Exploring the Public Bank Option by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
December 8, 2012

Image by Byzantine_K via Flickr

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.

Cooperative Banking by Ellen Brown

by Ellen Brown
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
webofdebt.com
May 23, 2012

According to both the Mayan and Hindu calendars, 2012 (or something very close) marks the transition from an age of darkness, violence and greed to one of enlightenment, justice, and peace.  It’s hard to see that change just yet in the events relayed in the major media, but a shift does seem to be happening behind the scenes; and this is particularly true in the once-boring world of banking.