Skip to main content
Thomas Hanna and Nomi Prins on The Laura Flanders Show

The Laura Flanders Show explores “revolution at the Federal Reserve”

Laura Flanders

Laura Flanders

Host and founder, The Laura Flanders Show more

Thomas Hanna

Thomas Hanna

Director of Research at The Democracy Collaborative more

Nomi Prins

Nomi Prins

Journalist and author on economic policy. more

In this episode of The Laura Flanders Show, The Next System Project Research Director Thomas M. Hanna and author Nomi Prins explore what systemic change would look like at the Federal Reserve.

Hanna recalls that during the height of the 2008 financial crisis, then-President Barack Obama told a group of bankers that his administration was the only thing standing between them and “the pitchforks.” If there is another financial crisis of that scale, which Hanna believes is likely, the pitchfork bearers might just break through—and Hanna argues they should. But the pitchfork bearers need a plan for how to reshape monetary policy to serve the interests of the public as a whole instead of Wall Street.

“At the national level during the last financial crisis we did actually take over several companies,” including the mortgage financiers known as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the lending company GMAC, and financial giant AIG. “When these big banks are going down in a crisis we have an opportunity: we can either bail them out or give them free cash or we can take something exchanged for that cash and that should be ownership shares with voting rights.”

Prins adds that another alternative is to “have more money in public banks that actually have been shown to adhere to the public good, … to actual, real economic growth at the foundational level of our economy.”

The host of the show, Laura Flanders, is a fellow with The Next System Project. The Laura Flanders Show airs nationally on Free Speech TV and KCET/Link TV, and CUNYTV in New York City.

 

Laura Flanders

Laura Flanders

Host and founder, The Laura Flanders Show more

Thomas Hanna

Thomas Hanna

Director of Research at The Democracy Collaborative more

Nomi Prins

Nomi Prins

Journalist and author on economic policy. more

More related work

Default Image: Fire

Can transformative change come to America?

The good news is systemic change may happen more rapidly than once seemed possible. But how the US and the world address the climate crisis will be a powerful determinant of what is possible. read more
Health innovation policy for the people

Health innovation policy for the people

Healthcare innovation policy in the United States has yielded some benefits but has also done harm, specifically when it comes o health equity. This paper identifies four such harms and offers recommendations that address the needs of marginalized communities and produces for all of us the innovations we really need. read more
Regeneration not gentrification

A “new direction”: Rediscovering community wealth building in an age of gentrification

To preserve communities in the throes of displacement, cooperative movements and new economy advocates must pivot in a new direction that blends place and the democratic economy. This “new direction” actually borrows from an idea nearly 50 years old. read more