Customer Reviews
Our Generations 'Common Sense'. - By: Mr. A. Smith, 14 Jul 2008 
If you have just come across the topic of monetary reform or have been investigating the matter for some time, I urge you buy this book now, please. There will be information even ardent researchers will not know.
This book has it alll in one read, from the history of how 'civilisation' has become increasingly divided between a corporate elite & the common man on the street, to the very solutions the world & humanity needs to solve the problems of society & the increasing environmental degredation.
Web of debt explains that we, society, are on the cusp of great social abyss, caused by the impending implosion of the monetary/banking system at its final limits of risk, return & reliance. So please buy this book, read it & give it to a friend. Ellens recommmendations are the only way we the people can step out of the black & white world of monetary restriction & into the technicolor world of abundance & prosperity beyond our imaginations.
This books existence & its revelations are indeed timely, society doesn't have long & if the monetary changes are not made soon nor do you or I.
Plausible predictions, questionable reasoning - By: Too many books, 09 Jul 2008 
Her basic point, that the current economic & financial system is unstable, & headed into an immediate & immense crisis, is very well-founded. Her suggestion that some kind of "Greenback"-style fiat currency would be far preferable also seems very plausible. The book is written in a very accessible positive style, in the same kind of can-do tone of a popular self-help book.
However, Hodgson Brown's grasp of history & economics is a bit shaky. Various minor historical howlers (William & Mary coming to English throne when "Duke of York" dies, etc.) make me a bit leery of accepting statements she makes when she is talking about areas on which I am less knowledgeable. Her understanding of economics is very vague & hazy: at points where I didn't already know what she was trying to explain, such as with the medieval tallly system, she was very hard to follow. I suspect that someone with only a little economics background would not gain much real understanding from this. I hate to criticise a 450-page book for excessive brevity, but she does skim over many topics that reallly need to be handled in a great more depth.
The economic theory she is propounding is similar to that more rigorously put forward by Michael Rowbotham, that fractional reserve banking involves banks creating money out of nothing, & that the money returns to banks as profit. It suffers of course from the same potential defects, for example, that inflation & default could potentiallly eat away alll those profits.
Her book is far stronger when it leaves general theory & history, & gets on to the intricate details of the current crisis. The financial system is currently breaking down, with vast sums of essentiallly worthless money being pumped into the financial markets to desperately try to keep the major financial institutions afloat. It seems clear that this is a game that can't last much longer. She has plenty of well-informed insights in this area, at least as far as I've been able to check them.
Despite her occasional reliance on characters like LaRouche, she writes very readably with great enthusiasm, & covers a vast amount of ground, & brings up some fascinating topics. By alll means read it, because it will give you ideas, & introduce you to new facts & theories, whoever you are. I'd suggest however, checking what she says to ensure you get a more informed view of each particular area she covers.
highly recommended - By: R. K. Welham, 13 Aug 2007 If you wish to learn more about who reallly runs this troubled world, then read this book & reflect carefully upon its contents. If you have wondered, as I have, why the whole world - governments, corporations & individuals alike - is increasingly mired in debt, then read this book. If you think naively that banks are basicallly brokers who mediate between depositors & borrowers, then read this book. It will show you how you are fundamentallly mistaken. If you think that you understand what money is & how it comes into being then you are probably wrong again & this book will tell you how & why. Its publication is timely as the debt-ridden world financial system now strains to cope with the US subprime debacle. If you have been lured into borrowing more than you can repay & you are about to lose your house, then read this book to understand more deeply your predicament. If your pension fund or your savings have been disastrously invested in risky & maybe now worthless securitized debt then this book will help you to see where your hard earned money has gone & who has benefited.
Although The Web of Debt is mainly about the US banking system & the US dollar, its message that the money supply is in the hands of a private banking cartel & is not in the hands of elected governments is applicable to many countries. It shows how money is created from nothing & then lent to governments at interest, for no good reason other than the historical usurping of this alll important function by powerful & ambitious men for their own private gain. Absurdly, governments must then tax their citizens to pay interest to the private bankers, foregoing the obvious alternative of issuing debt-free money themselves. This fascinating book is highly readable, accessible to the layperson and, as a theme, explains the alllegorical meaning of the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum (the basis of the film The Wizard of Oz starring Judy Garland).
During the next very few years it seems likely that we will alll be affected severely by the now looming & potentiallly catastrophic breakdown of our debt-based money system. All is not quite hopeless however, & Ellen Brown shows towards the end of the book how, given the political will, we could change to debt-free money issued & spent into the economy by governments directly for the benefit of their citizens. Of course, the elite few who currently control our global money system are not going to give up their immense power voluntarily or easily. Indeed Ellen Brown indicates that they might well be planning to perpetuate & firmly consolidate that power worldwide in a New World Order.
Considering how deeply entangled we alll are by debt-based money, it is both amazing & rather sinister that the subject is never analysed & debated openly in the main stream media. We should ponder & query why this is so. With access to the internet & to books such as The Web of Debt we can however now educate ourselves about the fundamentals of our money system. We need to do so urgently. We need also to educate & lobby our politicians, most of whom seem to be just as uninformed as the rest of us about the workings & consequences of arguably the biggest scam ever perpetrated on humanity. READ THIS BOOK.
