Daniel Tencer • Huffington Post Canada • May 15, 2012
Twelve-year-old Victoria Grant of Cambridge, Ontario, has become an overnight Internet sensation after a video of her giving a scathing criticism of Canada’s banking industry went viral.
Grant has been giving a rehearsed speech to audiences at conferences about how “the banks and the government have colluded to financially enslave the people of Canada.”
Her father has been posting the videos to YouTube. One such video, of an appearance by the youthful Grant at a Public Banking Institute conference in Philadelphia, got picked up by various blogs over the past few days.
…The core of the idea is that Canadian taxpayers are being ripped off by the banks and the government because elected officials are unnecessarily borrowing money from the private banks at commercial interest rates.
Until the 1970s, the government borrowed directly from the Bank of Canada, which is a Crown corporation and issues Canada’s currency. But in recent decades, it has been borrowing from private banks instead. Critics say that the government is unnecessarily paying extra in interest rates to cover private banks’ profit margins.
Jim Campen, professor emeritus of economics at UMass-Boston and a former executive director of Americans for Fairness in Lending, discussed the flow of money, credit, goods and services through the economy at tonight’s general assembly.Campen spoke first and the photographer came in late, and so can’t provide much detail about his talk.
Fred Mosely, economics professor at Mt Holyoke College, reviewed the history of US banking, focusing on the insight that capitalism is inherently unstable without vigorous, active regulation. He appealed for a return to policies that would propel the government to nationalize failing banks and sack their dysfunctional boards of directors – rather than throw bailout money at them. Mosely also advocated for public state-owned banks, and listed their advantages as including:
• Acting as a ‘public option’ in banking whose presence helps to stabilize the whole banking system.
• Provide counter-cyclical lending to minimize recessions.
• Provide low interest rates on home mortgages and student loans.
• Can allocate credit to achieve social-eoconomic objectives such as affordable housing, green energy, health care, etc.
Public Banking In America Conference, Philadelphia, April 27-28.
Presentation by Ellen Brown, attorney, author, and president of the Public Banking Institute: “From Austerity to Prosperity with Publicly Owned Banks. For more information see http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org.
Be sure to listen to Ellen’s introductory joke at 2:02.
“Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation’s laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.” -William Lyon Mackenzie King, 10th Prime Minister of Canada.
12-year old Victoria Grant explains why her homeland, Canada, and most of the world, is in debt. April 27, 2012 at the Public Banking in America Conference, Philadelphia, PA. For more information see http://www.publicbankinginstitute.org.
“Once a nation parts with the control of its currency and credit, it matters not who makes that nation’s laws. Usury, once in control, will wreck any nation. Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talk of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile.” -William Lyon Mackenzie King, 10th Prime Minister of Canada.
Public Banking In America Conference, Philadelphia, April 27-28.
Opening remarks by PBI president, Ellen Brown with keynote address by political economist, Gar Alperovitz.
Deborah Orr • www.guardian.co.uk/business • May 4, 2012
Surely, if the government got into lending money instead of borrowing it, the public sector could create wealth, too.
I’m certain all kinds of experts will tell me why, but I cannot for the life of me understand why the private sector has all the dibs on fractional reserve banking, and the public sector none. Fractional reserve banking is the wheeze whereby the more money a bank lends, the larger its assets become. It’s the reason the private sector is so great at “creating wealth”. It simply has a mandate to do so. But the private sector completely sodded up their goose that laid the golden eggs by lending too wildly to people who couldn’t pay it back. Now the problem is that they are lending too cautiously. Surely, if the government got into lending money instead of borrowing it, the public sector could create wealth, too – wealth that could wipe out the deficit? I’d move my mortgage to such a bank, and I’m certain that plenty of others would. Unlike private banks, this public bank would have the same institution underwriting it as does the lending. So caution, not risk, would be built in. Cool. The right is always complaining the left has no solutions. What on earth is wrong with this one?
Christina Lysacek • www.newsworks.org • April 29, 2012
Educating the community about alternatives to ‘big banks’, such as public banks, is what the Occupy Bozeman group hoped to accomplish at their public discussion this afternoon.
“Rather than having our state take all of the taxes and fees and put it into an account at U.S. Bank, like we do right now, the state has its own bank that it makes its deposits into, and then those deposits can be leveraged to create loans for people here in Montana,” explained Josh Davis, an Occupy Bozeman Member as well as the Montana contact for the Public Banking Institute.
North Dakota’s state-owned bank captured national attention a few years ago after a banking crisis and recession caused Americans to consider North Dakota’s contrasting prosperity. Although no state yet has followed North Dakota’s example and created a government-run bank, interest in the idea hasn’t waned.
Eric Hardmeyer, president of the Bank of North Dakota, and Rick Clayburgh, president of the North Dakota Bankers Association, both Bismarck, spoke last month via teleconference about the state bank at an event that drew a national and international audience.
The Public Banking Institute, an educational nonprofit organization, reports 17 states have introduced legislation to create publicly owned banks or derivations, or for studies or task forces to determine how a publicly owned bank would operate in their jurisdictions.
Elizabeth Fiedler • www.newsworks.org • April 27, 2012
Grassroots organizers and politicians are among those who gathered Friday at the Friends Center in Philadelphia to learn about public banks and how to create them.
Participants are learning a lot about the Bank of North Dakota, said Walt McRee, a senior consultant with the Public Banking Institute, the nonprofit that’s hosting the conference, “A state that had no fallout from the 2008 financial collapse, has a substantial budget, the lowest unemployment in the nation, the highest number of community banks per capita in the country — all because it doesn’t send its money to Wall Street,” McRee said. “It keeps all of the tax money and all of the revenues that come in through normal state operations.”
If you are not happy with the way Wall Street operates, there is an alternative. We can create public banks to create public money for the public good. In fact, here in DC, a group has already formed to look into creating a public bank for the city modeled after the only public bank in the U.S., the Bank of North Dakota, formed back in 1919 and going strong today.
When: Friday, April 13 – 11 AM – 1PM
Where: Florida Avenue Meeting House, 2111 Florida Avenue between Decatur and S Street NW
Featuring
Marc Armstrong, Executive Director, Public Banking Institute
Mark Calabria, Director, Financial Regulation Studies, CATO Institute
Penelope Lemov • www.governing.com • April 12, 2012
A growing number of policymakers have been looking to North Dakota and its state bank. Why, you ask? Founded in 1919 with $2 million in capital, the Bank of North Dakota (BND) now operates with more than $270 million. More to the point, it has handed over some $300 million to North Dakota’s treasury over the past decade.
Ellen Brown • www.globalresearch.ca • April 8, 2012
Resonating with that theme, on April 27th-28th the Public Banking in America Conference will be held at the Quaker Friends Center in Philadelphia, hosted by the Public Banking Institute (PBI). PBI’s vision is to establish a network of public banks across the country to generate affordable credit according to the priorities of real people, not corporate persons or banks. These priorities include student loans, sustainable agriculture, worker-owned coops, renewable energy, and so on. The Bank of North Dakota, currently the only publicly-owned depository bank in the USA, has over two dozen loan programs reflecting the priorities of the people of North Dakota.
This is my daughter. She gave this speech at a businees meeting in front of 600 people. Her eyes have been opened to a scam that is being perpetrated upon Canadians and the rest of the world.
Ellen Brown • www.huffingtonpost.com • April 3, 2012
Even the world’s most resource-rich country has now been caught in the debt trap. Its once-proud government programs are being subjected to radical budget cuts — cuts that could have been avoided if the government had not quit borrowing from its own central bank in the 1970s.
BancoEstado Newsroom • http://www.en.corporativo.bancoestado.cl • May 1, 2010
Santiago – 01/05/2010
BancoEstado was the state-owned bank that gave more loans during the peak of the global financial crisis in the region, according to reports by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.
As stated by El Mercurio newspaper on January 13, BancoEstado was the state-owned entity that gave more loans during the height of the crisis.
In fact, it was at that point that the state-owned bank recorded more progress over the institutions in the region.
Based on the figures reported by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Chilean state-owned bank increased its loans by 20%, between December 2008 and September 2009, highest figure recorded compared to countries such as Colombia and Brazil, which also underwent significant increases during the period, 18.6% and 17.1%, respectively.
This important progress for BancoEstado is due to several reasons, such as its proactive and anti-cyclical credit policy during the year, which set out important interest rate cuts for all its products, in order to help reactivate the Chilean economy.
During 2009, loans at the state-owned bank increased by 21.7%, equivalent to MMUS$ 3,000,000, while the rest of the banks in the region recorded cuts in this area. Therefore, the state-owned bank increased its market share by 3 points.
Wall Street Confidence Trick: The Interest Rate Swaps that Are Bankrupting Local Governments
For more than a decade, banks and insurance companies convinced local governments, hospitals, universities and other non-profits that interest rate swaps would lower interest rates on bonds sold for public projects such as roads, bridges and schools. The swaps were entered into to insure against a rise in interest rates; but instead, interest rates fell to historically low levels. This was not a flood, earthquake, or other insurable risk due to environmental unknowns or “acts of God.” It was a deliberate, manipulated move by the Fed, acting to save the banks from their own folly in precipitating the credit crisis of 2008. The banks got in trouble, and the Federal Reserve and federal government rushed in to bail them out, rewarding them for their misdeeds at the expense of the taxpayers.
Public-sector banking is a concept that is relatively unknown in the United States. Only one state – North Dakota – owns its own bank. North Dakota is also the only state to escape the credit crisis of 2008, and has sported a budget surplus every year since, but skeptics write this off to coincidence or other factors. The common perception is that government bureaucrats are bad business people. To determine whether government-owned banks are assets or liabilities, then, we need to look farther afield.
When we remove our myopic US blinders, it turns out that, globally, not only are publicly owned banks quite common, but countries with strong public banking sectors generally have strong, stable economies. According to an Inter-American Development Bank paper presented in 2005, the percentage of state ownership in the banking industry globally by the mid-nineties was over 40 percent. The BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – contain nearly 3 billion of the world’s 7 billion people, or 40 percent of the global population. The BRICs all make heavy use of public-sector banks, which compose about 75 percent of the banks in India, 69 percent or more in China, 45 percent in Brazil and 60 percent in Russia.
An act relating to creating an expert panel on the creation of a state bank.
It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
Sec. 1. VERMONT STATE BANK STUDY PANEL
(a) Creation of panel. There is created a Vermont state bank study panel for the purpose of researching, evaluating, and proposing one or more potential models for the creation of a Vermont state bank.
(b) Membership. The panel shall be composed of five members as follows:
(1) the deputy commissioner of banking within the department of banking, insurance, securities, and health care administration;
(2) the state treasurer;
(3) a former president or vice president of a Vermont bank or credit union, who shall be appointed by the governor;
(4) a current or former mayor, treasurer, or executive administrator of a Vermont municipality, who shall be appointed by the president pro tempore of the senate; and
(5) a former executive director of a Vermont nonprofit organization which, as part of its mission, directly lends or services loans or other similar obligations, who shall be appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives.
(c) Powers and duties.
(1) The panel shall research and evaluate:
(A) the current banking system, the operations, and the procedures that the state, municipalities, and other state instrumentalities use for their own internal banking and related human resource and operational requirements and the administrative and opportunity costs thereof;
(B) the number, nature, and scope of lending, loan servicing, and related operations performed by the state, its instrumentalities, and state-funded public and private organizations and the administrative and opportunity costs thereof;
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here.
Statement of Purpose: Modeled on the highly successful and long-standing partnership bank in North Dakota, an Idaho Partnership Bank would make more capital available to small businesses at a time when many businesses are finding loans harder and more expensive to access. By partnering with smaller, local community banks, an Idaho Partnership Bank would spur economic growth, create new jobs, and expand Idaho’s diverse economy. An Idaho Partnership Bank would also strengthen Idaho’s credit markets and protect a free and competitive market for community banks, while also generating significant revenue for the State of Idaho, both through the bank’s annual dividends and the new income derived from job creation. With this legislation, a committee would be formed to undertake and complete a study of the feasibility of creating a state-owned bank. The legislature will appoint members from each legislative chamber who will authorize the committee to receive comprehensive input from interested and affected parties who are not members of the legislature.
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here.
Ellen Brown • CommonDreams.org • February 27, 2012
Seventeen states have now introduced bills for state-owned banks, and others are in the works. Hawaii’s innovative state bank bill addresses the foreclosure mess. County-owned banks are being proposed that would tackle the housing crisis by exercising the right of eminent domain on abandoned and foreclosed properties. Arizona has a bill that would do this for homeowners who are current in their payments but underwater, allowing them to refinance at fair market value.
This bill would establish the California Investment Trust within state government, and would authorize the trust to exercise various powers and duties relating to banking, including, among others, receiving and managing deposits from public funds, loaning money, engaging in financial transactions, and buying and selling federal funds. The bill would require all state money, as defined, to be deposited into the California Investment Trust. The bill would establish a California Investment Trust Board to be chaired by the Treasurer, and would establish an advisory board for purposes of advising the board. The bill would establish the California Investment Trust Fund for deposit of all state moneys, and would continuously appropriate those moneys to the board for expenditure, thereby making an appropriation of General Fund moneys. The bill would require the State Auditor to make specified audits of the trust, and require the State Auditor, Department of Finance, and the Controller to make specified reports to the Legislature with regard to the trust. The bill would exempt certain documents of the trust from public disclosure.
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here. Pdf of the Bill is here.
Creates the State Bank of Illinois Act. Establishes The State Bank of Illinois and the State Bank of Illinois Board. Sets forth the membership of the State Board. Provides that the State Board shall appoint an advisory board of directors. Provides that the State Bank may accept deposits of private funds and public funds. Sets forth the powers of the State Bank. Provides that all deposits in the State Bank are guaranteed by the State. Provides that, whenever any public funds are deposited into the State Bank, the public official who deposited the funds is exempt from liability for loss of the funds while they are deposited in the State Bank. Amends the Freedom of Information Act to provide that certain records of the State Bank are exempt from disclosure.
(b) The purposes of the State Bank are:
(1) to support the creation of jobs and broader economic development in this State by increasing access to capital for businesses and farms within this State in partnership with local financial institutions;
(2) to provide stability to the local financial sector, issue bank stock loans to financial institutions organized under the laws of this State, and not in anyway to compete with community banks, credit unions, or other financial institutions;
(3) to reduce the costs paid by this State for basic banking services; and
(4) to return profits, beyond those necessary to accomplish the mission and continued sound operation of the State Bank, to the State.
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here.
Learn in a few minutes what the monetary creation through debt, the Fractional Reserve Banking, and the article 123 in the Lisbon treaty are… They are absolutely necessary to understand the causes of the public and private debts which are devastating the developed countries.
THIS STATE SHALL ENGAGE IN THE BUSINESS OF BANKING AND SHALL MAINTAIN A SYSTEM OF BANKING OWNED, CONTROLLED AND OPERATED BY THIS STATE UNDER THE NAME OF THE BANK OF ARIZONA.
SPONSORS: FILLMORE P
TITLE: establishment; bank of Arizona
HOUSE FIRST READ: 01/11/12
COMMITTEES: ASSIGNED COMMITTEES ACTION
01/11/12 BI 01/31/12 W/D
01/11/12 COM 01/31/12 W/D
01/31/12 ERA
01/11/12 RULES
HOUSE SECOND READ: 01/12/12
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here.
SB 6310 – 2011-12: Creating the Washington investment trust.
History of the Bill as of Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:28 PM
Sponsors: Senators Keiser, Conway, Hargrove, Prentice, Frockt, Shin, Kohl-Welles, Nelson, Rolfes, Chase, Kline
2012 REGULAR SESSION
Jan 17 First reading, referred to Financial Institutions, Housing & Insurance. (View Original Bill)
Jan 25 Public hearing in the Senate Committee on Financial Institutions and Housing & Insurance at 1:30 PM. (Committee Materials)
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here.
…it’s clear…that COUNTY governments can set up their own banks and use Eminent Domain as a tool to stop foreclosures.
Our sovereign currency and credit has been usurped for private gain instead of public good. Let’s take back control of our money from Wall Street and build prosperity on Main Street by creating state, county, and municipal public banks. Public tax monies should be leveraged by public officials, not speculators and swindlers. Check out the Public Banking Institute for more information.
Link to the video (part 1 of 2)here. Link to the video (part 2 of 2)here.
HB1840
Measure Title: RELATING TO STATE-OWNED BANK.
Report Title: Financial Institutions; State-owned Bank; Task Force
Description: Establishes a task force to review, investigate, and study the feasibility and cost of establishing a state-owned bank. Requires a report to the Legislature.
Introducer(s): OSHIRO, TSUJI
Status:
1/13/2012 Prefiled
1/18/2012 Introduced and Pass First Reading.
1/19/2012 Referred to ERB, CPC, FIN, referral sheet 2
1/20/2012 Bill scheduled to be heard by ERB on Tuesday, 01-24-12 8:30AM in House conference room 312.
Status of the Bill is here. Text of the Bill is here.
Jordan Schrader • theolympian.com • January 16, 2012
‘EMPOWERMENT’: Backers say move would cut ties with big banks; skeptics ask where money would come from
State government stores money at Bank of America, buys goods with U.S. Bank cards, and distributes welfare aid through JP Morgan Chase ATMs.
Supporters of cutting such ties to big banks say the first step is creating the state’s own bank.
The idea of a state bank – a favorite of the Occupy movement that sees it as an alternative to Wall Street – has strong support among the Democrats who control the state House. Speaker Frank Chopp called it a top priority last week in a speech opening this year’s session of the Legislature.
Washington state lawmakers are considering forming a state bank that would be able to make student loans, distribute welfare aid and help finance public works.
The idea is championed by state Rep. Bob Hasegawa, whose district from from Renton to south Seattle. He introduced a bill last week he says won’t run afoul of the state constitution’s prohibition against lending the state’s credit.
The Olympian reports the state bank idea is endorsed by House Speaker Frank Chopp of Seattle who calls it the Washington Investment Trust.
Other lawmakers say it would add to the state bureaucracy and compete with private banks. State Treasurer Jim McIntire says there already are a number of agencies that have similar goals.
Ellen Brown • globalresearch.ca • January 15, 2012
An electronic database called MERS has created defects in the chain of title to over half the homes in America. Counties have been cheated out of millions of dollars in recording fees, and their title records are in hopeless disarray. Meanwhile, foreclosed and abandoned homes are blighting neighborhoods. Straightening out the records and restoring the homes to occupancy is clearly in the public interest, and the burden is on local government to do it. But how? New legal developments are presenting some innovative alternatives.
…The neoliberal model that says banks can govern themselves has failed. It is up to county governments to restore the rule of law and repair the economic distress wrought behind the smokescreen of MERS. New tools at the county’s disposal—including eminent domain, land banks, and publicly-owned banks—can facilitate this local rebirth.
Alan Kline • americanbanker.com • December 28, 2011
The Washington Business Journal reported Wednesday that Del. Bob Marshall, a Republican, introduced legislation this week to study the viability of opening a bank that would be modeled after Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the country. Marshall introduced a similar bill in 2010, but that bill failed to make it out of committee.
The idea of creating a state-owned bank has been gaining traction in a number of state legislatures of late. Lawmakers in California, Massachusetts, Oregon, Hawaii and several other states all introduced bills last year that sought to establish a state-owned bank or study the idea of creating one and it is expected that similar bills will be reintroduced early this year when state legislatures convene. (Virginia’s legislative session begins Jan. 11.)
In 2006, Congress passed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), which forced the USPS to put aside billions of dollars to pay for the health benefits of employees, many of whom hadn’t even been hired yet. Over a mere ten-year period, the USPS was required to pre-fund its future health care benefit payments to retirees for the next 75 years, something no other government or private corporation is required to do. As consumer advocate Ralph Nader observed, if PAEA had never been enacted, USPS would now be facing a $1.5 billion surplus.
The USPS is a profitable, self-funded venture that is not supported by the taxpayers. It is funded with postage stamps – one of the last vestiges of government-issued money. Stamps are fungible and can be traded at par, and they are backed, not by mere government “fiat,” but by labor. One stamp will buy the labor to transport your letter 3,000 miles.
…Banking in post offices is not new. Many countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Japan and New Zealand, have a long and successful history of it – and so does the United States.
Try to find a bank president that’s beloved by supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s not impossible. You’ll just have to travel to North Dakota.
Meet Eric Hardmeyer, who bears the unlikely distinction of being perhaps the only banker in America who, in addition to being embraced by Wall Street protesters, has been exalted by the likes of Michael Moore, Mother Jones magazine, and the Progressive States Network, among other progressive stalwarts.
That’s because Hardmeyer heads the Bank of North Dakota (BND), the country’s only publicly-owned state bank. The institution, located ironically enough in a solidly red state, has become the darling of progressives who have become frustrated with corporate banks they say helped cause the financial crisis and resulting credit crunch.
Spurred by the recession, bank bailouts and the difficulty consumers are having getting loans, members of the Occupy movement and others are stepping up calls for a public banking option.
North Dakota currently has the nation’s only state-run bank. Supporters point out that the state is the only one to have had a budget surplus since the economic crisis began, and has an unemployment rate below 4%.
“People are becoming more aware that our existing banking system isn’t serving us,” said Ellen Brown, one of the founders of the Public Banking Institute, a non-profit formed in January to advocate for public banking.
Ellen Brown • HuffingtonPost.com • December 15, 2011
The campaign to “move your money” has gotten a groundswell of support. Having greater impact would be to “move our money” — move our local government revenues out of Wall Street banks into our own publicly-owned banks.
Occupy Wall Street has been both criticized and applauded for not endorsing any official platform. But there are unofficial platforms, including one titled the 99% Declaration that calls for a “National General Assembly” to convene on July 4, 2012 in Philadelphia. the 99% Declaration seeks everything from reining in the corporate state to ending the Fed to eliminating censorship of the Internet. But none of these demands seems to go to the heart of what prompted Occupiers to camp out on Wall Street in the first place — a corrupt banking system that serves the 1% at the expense of the 99%. To redress that, we need a banking system that serves the 99%.
David Weidner • marketwatch.com • December 1, 2011
…The second step consumers can take if they’re fed up with banks is supporting public banking. In a recent column, I noted how San Francisco’s Occupy movement is supporting a public bank for the city. Read related commentary on Occupy San Francisco and municipal banks .
But public banking, in which government assets are set aside for lending back into the community, is gaining traction nationally too. There are public banks or derivatives in North Dakota and Oklahoma. Three states — Maine, Montana and Arizona — have bills proposing state-owned banks in their legislative bodies. And nine more states are considering some form of public banking.
An organization called the Public Banking Institute was founded in January by Ellen Brown, a Los Angeles-based attorney, to lobby and focus national efforts.
If formed, these new banks would partner with local banks, offering to match loans dollar-to-dollar with them to local borrowers. While state banks generally aren’t retail banks, there’s no reason why they couldn’t offer retail services down the road, since they are effectively public credit unions.
The recent interest in state-owned banks has provoked challenges on grounds that they violate state constitutional prohibitions against lending the credit of the state. The argument is not valid, for several reasons:
(1) The U.S. Supreme Court has already considered it and rejected it.
(2) A number of states have owned banks historically, and many states have infrastructure banks today, which are specifically authorized by 23 U.S. Code Section 610.
(3) The argument misconstrues the nature of banking. All states deposit their revenues and invest their capital in banks. This does not mean they are “lending the credit of the state.” The bank lends its own credit. If a state can put its revenues and invest its capital in Bank of America or Chase Bank, it can put them in a state-owned bank.
These arguments also apply to county-owned banks, city-owned banks and any other chartered banks owned by the people as public institutions.
For all the faults, though, protesters in the Bay Area, especially Occupy San Francisco, have something their East Coast neighbors don’t: a realistic plan aimed at the heart of banks. The idea could be expanded nationwide to send a message to a compromised Washington and the financial industry.
It’s called a municipal bank. Simply put, it would transfer the City of San Francisco’s bank accounts—about $2 billion now spread between such banks as Bank of America Corp., UnionBanCal Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co.—into a public bank. That bank would use small local banks to lend to the community.
The following must-see 60 Minutes segment further highlights the deteriorating economic conditions across the United States.
It turns out some families are losing their grip on the motels and discovering that the homesless shelters are full. Where do they go then? They try to keep up appearances by day and try to stay out of sight at night – holding on to one another in a hidden America, a place you wouldn’t notice unless you ran into the people we met in the moments before dawn.
Alison Vekshin • Businessweek.com • November 18, 2011
Eric Hardmeyer, chief executive officer of the Bank of North Dakota, said he’s heard from 30 to 40 states asking the same thing: How does the only state-owned bank in the U.S. work?
The financial institution, which opened in 1919 to help North Dakota farmers, has $5 billion in assets and contributed about $340 million in earnings to state coffers in the 12 years through mid-2009.
On November 3, 2011, Alan Minsky interviewed me on KPFK’s program, “Building a Powerful Movement in the United States” in preparation for an Occupy L.A. teach-in. To clarify my points I have edited and expanded my answers from the interview transcript.
Alan Minsky: I am joined now by Michael Hudson. He is a distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and also is president of the Institute for the Study of Long Term Economic Trends. Welcome to the show, Michael.
Restore America’s past prosperity and rescue the future from the financial grabbers
Michael Hudson: …The idea throughout the nineteenth century was to create this kind of public option. There was a Post Office bank, and that could still be elaborated to provide banking services at cost or at a subsidized price. After all, in Russia and Japan the post office banks are the largest of all!
The logic for a public banking option is the same as for governments providing free roads: The aim is to minimize the cost of living and doing business. On my website, michael-hudson.com, I have posted an article just published in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology on Simon Patten. He was the first professor of economics at the Wharton Business School. He spelled out the logic of public infrastructure as a “fourth” factor of production (alongside, labor, capital and land). Its productivity is to be measured not by how much profit it makes, but by how much it lowers the economy’s price structure.
Patricia Sabatini • Pittsburgh post-gazette.com • November 18, 2011
The Public Banking Institute, a non-profit based in Sonoma, Calif., was launched in January to study and promote the idea of government-owned banks. Mike Krauss is a director of the institute and chairman of the Pennsylvania Project in charge of rallying support for a state-owned bank in Pennsylvania. He began his involvement with the institute through its president, Ellen Brown, who wrote a book, “The Web of Debt” about the banking industry. Mr. Krauss, 62, who works as a consultant in international logistics, talked with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this week about the institute’s efforts.
Q: How many other state-level organizations does the institute have like the one in Pennsylvania?
A: About 20 that are really active. Most are identified on the public banking website [www.publicbankinginstitute.org]. We’re not lobbying legislators right now. We are going to launch a public education campaign.
Ellen Brown, author of “The Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free,” talking about our monetary and banking system at Occupy LA on November 5, 2011.
Ellen Brown author of “The Web of Debt: The Shocking Truth About Our Money System and How We Can Break Free” talking about the public banking system and the Bank of North Dakota on October 26, 2011 at Kan Hall, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
