At the Public Banking in America Conference in Philadelphia in April, 12-year old Victoria Grant explained why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt. It was a reprisal of a speech she'd given six weeks before at a Rotary Club for 600 people, a clip of which quickly went viral. "Have you ever wondered why the bankers from the largest private banks are becoming wealthier and the rest of us are not?" she intones in her precocious cadence. "What I've discovered is the banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada."

Let's hear it for young activists. They might end up saving the world.