Ellen Hodgson Brown, J.D., is the founder, first President and the inspiration and intellectual leader of the Public Banking Institute (PBI). She is currently President Emeritus and Senior Advisor to the PBI. She has degrees from UC Berkeley and UCLA School of Law and developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles.

Ellen turned these investigative skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve in her first major publication on the subject of money and banking, Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free. She traces the history and evolution of the current private banking system and shows how it has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves, and how we the people can get it back. In the sequel, The Public Bank Solution: From Austerity to Prosperity she moves the focus to more local, grassroots alternatives for getting back the money power, by owning some banks ourselves. To that end, she explores the considerable proven successes of the public banking model historically and in the contemporary world. Ellen has written nearly 100 articles on this subject since Web of Debt was first published, and is the inspiration and intellectual leader behind the Public Banking Institute. In an effort to implement these ideas, Ellen is now running, with the Green Party endorsement, for the position of the Treasurer of the State of California.

Ellen hosts a weekly show, It’s Our Money, on the Progress Radio Network. Each week she delves into a number of financial topics, including how public money is usurped from public service by financial interests that redirect it toward private profit. Ellen interviews experts, activists and others working on change, and reports on recent developments in the fields of banking, the economy, and our money. Her blog and written articles can be found at http://EllenBrown.com.