Supported by a grant from the Denver Foundation, Be The Change USA and the Public Banking Institute present a national public banking conference, Banking on Colorado: Bringing Our Money Home — A conference to educate and inform the public officials and citizens of Colorado and the nation about the role a public bank could play in supporting the creation of a sustainable, more democratic economy.

The conference will feature three afternoon panels, composed of local and national speakers, and an evening session containing our two keynote speakers, Ellen Brown, author of The Public Bank Solution, and Nomi Prins, author of All the Presidents’ Bankers. A tentative detailed program will be published soon.

The registration fee for the conference is $25 ($10 for students with a valid student ID). In addition, for those wishing to remain at the venue between the afternoon and evening sessions, we will be serving dinner for $15.

The conference will provide the inspiration and intellectual basis that will allow us to move forward with the establishment of public banks. Participants will learn:

• The dominance of the large, multi-national banks in our economy with their often abusive, fraudulent, and sometimes criminal operations
• Why the current financial system ignores or even harms local economies and the middle class,
• The financial challenges faced by homeowners, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and students because of the current financial system,
• What public banking is and how it benefits its constituents,
• Why public banks lend counter-cyclically, to increase lending in a recession, and decrease or control lending to prevent bubbles,
• The bold story about a new, sustainable economy based on respect, compassion, dignity, and democracy, and
• The ability to help kick-start the implementation of public banking through the power of our diversity and numbers

For those unable to attend the conference in person, there will be video recordings of all sessions of the conference that will be posted on our website.

Nationally Renowned Speakers:

Nomi Prins
Senior Fellow at Demos, former Managing Director at Goldman Sachs; former Senior Managing Director at Bear Stearns
Author, All the Presidents’ Bankers: The Hidden Alliances that Drive American Power and It Takes A Pillage: Epic Tale of Power, Deceit & Untold Trillions

Ellen Hodgson Brown
Founder, President Emerita, and Senior Advisor, Public Banking Institute
Author, Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free and The Public Bank Solution, From Austerity to Prosperity

Gwendolyn Hallsmith
Executive Director, Public Banking Institute
Author, Creating Wealth: Growing Local Economies with Local Currencies and The Key to Sustainable Cities

Mike Krauss
Chairman, Board of Directors, Pennsylvania Public Bank Project
Founding Board Member, Public Banking Institute
Former Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee