Saturday May 26, 2012, 8:14 pm

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.

In the dark age of Kali Yuga, money rules; and it is through banks that the moneyed interests have gotten their power. 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 the local economy.
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By Ellen Brown for OpEd News|

Saturday May 26, 2012, 8:56 pm
thanks

Sunday May 27, 2012, 10:02 am
The 2012 weirdness hasn't anything to do with banking. And if my bank pays me a fair return on the money I invest and is honest with its own borrowers, then it's done its job. It's a business, not a social services agency.

Sunday May 27, 2012, 10:13 am

The banks and Wall Street were both involved in misuse of investor funds. Ellen Brown is speaking to the use of local banks that can help build and invest in each community. Many of us do not wish to rely on the state or federal government in the rebuilding process and yes, we are attempting to rebuild a fractured economy. I believe that community action is the most healthy way to rebuild. Only those in a community know what resources are needed, and banks have long played an active role in community investment.

Sunday May 27, 2012, 11:14 am
We have learned that centralizing power leads to corruption, greed and theft. We see this in every thing from banking, government, agriculture, energy generation, etc. Too big to fail is the warning sign that that system is failing.We must think locally. Bank at a credit union. Buy from the farmer's market. Put PV on your roof. Buy seeds from a traditional source not Monsanto.Follow the three Rs, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Live local but think global.

Sunday May 27, 2012, 2:51 pm
it is good news that a better system is being thought out. thanks for the post!

Sunday May 27, 2012, 6:52 pm
What an interesting idea...lets see where it goes.

Sunday May 27, 2012, 6:55 pm
Didn't have time to give the article a thorough read, will do that later. But, it seems community banks are the best way to truly support and serve their customers. The mega-banks that sprouted since the destruction of Glass-Steagall have only served to make their Corporate masters very wealthy while hurting 99% of us.

Sunday May 27, 2012, 7:39 pm

Ellen Brown has promoted this idea for some time now. North Dakota is following with a state bank. Texas and I think Louisana have state banks.

Sunday May 27, 2012, 9:16 pm
Thanks Kit. Good post.

Monday May 28, 2012, 6:50 am
We only use smaller community banks.

Monday May 28, 2012, 10:23 am
How about no money at all in the whole world

Monday May 28, 2012, 5:19 pm
thanks :)

Monday May 28, 2012, 9:13 pm
Noted, thanks.

Tuesday May 29, 2012, 7:29 am
Seems time to reinstate usury laws that limited interest to reasonable rates (it is Biblical, too)--used to be 10% many places...with credit cards charging 25% it seems time to change back

Tuesday May 29, 2012, 9:22 am

Sending a Green Star is a simple way to say "Thank you"
You cannot currently send a star to J.L. because you have done so within the last week.

I remember only too well when Texas was the last of the states to increase the maximum amount of interest that could be charged for a mortgage. Within that year our home, a nice house with just over 2,000 square feet, went from $32,000. to over $150,000 in assessed value. We sold just before the insanity in housing market and did not make the "killing" in the market. I'm glad as I would have felt very uncomfortable with that. That was also the year that we had the first major price hike in gasoline, in our area it not only tripled in price but was rationed, only $5.00 per service, and all stations had cars lined up for blocks or more. With the slow but inevitable access to public transportation, we use less gasoline, and that along with the ever increasing use of alternative fuels may be our hope to breaking the tyrannical hold that banks and oil companies have on us. Think community first, what can you do in your community?

Tuesday May 29, 2012, 1:08 pm
Right now what I do have is in a credit union.

Tuesday May 29, 2012, 1:12 pm
The federal reserve system is an instrument that robs, enslaves, and puts a level of debt on the backs of our government, business, homeowners, students, and everyday citizen. The federal reserve must be audited and eventually abolished if America is to survive. It is made up of a bunch of greedy, blood sucking zionistt who enrich those it pleases like Facebook at the expense of the rest of us. I

How did our givernment get 17 trillion dollars in debt? When the banking system prints money out of thin air backed by no real assets and then loans it to the government and the citizens at exorbitant rates it's no wonder that most of us are indebted to the %1. The federal reserve banking system is the instrument used to enslave us to the 1%.

Then our banks are allowed to peddle usurist loans to students, prospective homeowners, and businesses that drive them in debt for years. Why is this allowed when just about every spiritual and religious tradition speaks against usury? After they take our money we are then brainwashed into war after war that kills civilians in our countries and maim, disable, and kill our sons and daughters for weapons of mass destruction that somehow conveniently disappear.

Don't wait for our politicians to do anything about it either. Folks, we are presently living under fascism; or the getting together of government and the corporation to rule us. And it doesn't matter if Romney or Obama is elected. Both are commissioned and paid to lie, confuse, control, lead us to slaughter.

It will be chaos or community. Freedom or slavery. We must move toward a more German model without the austerity. In Germany workers sit on the boards of directors. Fifty percent of German energy comes from solar and wind power. We must first get out of the box the corporate media has put our mind in by daily offering us a diet of a melodrama of an endless political compaign between two entities that are in reality the same. Create a peoples agenda.

Tuesday May 29, 2012, 9:06 pm
Very interesting idea. Thanks, Kit. I would not want to go back to pulling a little red wagon full of silver dollars when I wanted to go grocery shopping.

Tuesday May 29, 2012, 9:14 pm

Sending a Green Star is a simple way to say "Thank you"
You cannot currently send a star to TERRANCE because you have done so within the last week.

Absolutely get rid of the FED. A private bank that continues to feed big banks and put us in ever deeper debt. The same year the Fed was created so was IRS. (1913)

Wednesday May 30, 2012, 2:09 pm
Don't trust big banks and the 1%. BE THE CHANGE !!