Public Banking

Do Bank of America and Wells Fargo Run Vermont’s Capitol City?

“To repeat myself ad nauseum, I still don't see how our city's chief economic development officer can hold and promote views that are fundamentally anti-capitalist in nature.” – March 19, 2013, email from the Montpelier mayor to the city manager. When a city employee promotes a point of view that happens to center on an aspect of populist economics that seeks to serve the public good, and the democratically-elected mayor of that city has an opposing ideology that he’d rather not debate openly, why would anyone expect the resolution of this conflict to be anything but ugly? That describes the often-covert, year-long struggle by minions of the private banking industry in 2013 to strangle the nascent idea of a Public Bank for Vermont in its cradle before the public might begin to admire it and help it grow. In this preliminary outline of the circumstances that appear to have culminated in a process so blatantly unfair as to be laughable if it were in a movie, the three main actors all worked for the City of Montpelier.

The Amazing Success Of Public Banking In Costa Rica

November 12, 2013 Ellen Brown, www.globalresearch.ca Educate! Finance and the Economy, Public Banking

In Costa Rica, publicly-owned banks have been available for so long and work so well that people take for granted that any country that knows how to run an economy has a public banking option. Costa Ricans are amazed to hear there is only one public depository bank in the United States (the Bank of North Dakota), and few people have private access to it. The Costa Rican model is particularly instructive at a time when US citizens are groaning under the twin burdens of taxes and increased health insurance costs. Like the Costa Ricans, we could reduce taxes while increasing social services and rebuilding infrastructure, if we were to allow the government to actually make some money itself. And a giant first step would be for it to establish some publicly-owned banks.

New Economy Week — October 12-18, 2013

October 10, 2013 Staff, www.neweconomyweek.org Create! Cooperatives, Education, Energy, Environment, Finance and the Economy, Food and Agriculture, Public Banking, Solar, Worker Rights and Jobs

It’s becoming clearer every day that something is wrong in America. We see symptoms of a deeper problem through our own experiences with growing inequality, chronic unemployment, financial instability, undemocratic consolidations of power, environmental crisis, and the declining well being of communities, families, and individuals. Many of us have come to the realization that our economy is out of control; undermining many of those things we hold most dear. For some this leads to despair or resignation, for others it inspires activism, and for increasingly more Americans it leads to a desire and a commitment to innovate and build something that works better for the people, planet, and places we love. New Economy Week is a celebration of this innovative spirit, an opportunity to shine a light on the thousands upon thousands of things that everyday people are doing right now to build a new kind of economy.

The Looming Mass Destruction from Derivatives

September 20, 2013 Ellen Brown, www.ellenbrown.com Educate! Finance and the Economy, Public Banking

Increased regulation and low interest rates are driving lending from the regulated commercial banking system into the unregulated shadow banking system. The shadow banks, although free of government regulation, are propped up by a hidden government guarantee in the form of safe harbor status under the 2005 Bankruptcy Reform Act pushed through by Wall Street. The result is to create perverse incentives for the financial system to self-destruct. Increased regulation and low interest rates have made lending to homeowners and small businesses less attractive than before 2008. The easy subprime scams of yesteryear are no more. The void is being filled by the shadow banking system. Shadow banking comes in many forms, but the big money today is in repos and derivatives.

Billionaire Bailout Society: 99% May Never Recover In Our Lifetimes

September 17, 2013 Les Leopold, www.alternet.org Create! Finance and the Economy, Public Banking

What will it take to win? There are some positive signs popping up all over the country. Low-wage workers are organizing. The AFL-CIO is finally coming out of its defensive crouch and opening up to non-traditional worker organizations. More and more co-ops are forming. And more than 20 states are seriously considering moves toward public banks. But we'll need much more to dent the billionaire bailout society. We will need nothing less than a broad movement that connects all these efforts and many more into a coherent force aimed at high finance. The money labor squanders on meaningless elections should be funding the attack on Wall Street. It's time we looked more seriously at the last time Americans rose up against Wall Street. That was during the Populist Era of the late 19th century.

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