Big congrats to our longtime ally Professor Michael McCarthy! His book The Master’s Tools: How Finance Wrecked Democracy (and a Radical Plan to Rebuild It) grew out of his work with Public Bank LA and just won 2 national awards.
Professor McCarthy helped write briefs on what a democratic public bank could do for Los Angeles. His argument: you can’t fix democracy without fixing who controls the money. Wall Street steers investment toward profit, while our communities wait on housing, clean energy, and public goods.
The answer? Public banks run for the people, by the people.
Read the interview: https://news.ucsc.edu/2026/10/to-save-democracy-put-financial-power-in-the-hands-of-the-people/
Read Professor’s McCarthy’s Democratic Governance plan for Public Bank LA: https://publicbankla.org/democratic-governance-frameworks/
