This is a letter to the Public Banking subgroup of Alt Banking for the weekend of January 11th, 2014:
Hi All,
I hope interest in educating ourselves about and possibly promoting a Public Bank (PB) for NY is till on the groups issue agenda. Sunday’s 1/12 pre-meeting film and discussion will leave little time for a sub-group meeting. So I hope some of us can stay on after 5 PM for a short meeting to plan next steps in the PB sub groups work. I’ll be at Sunday’s meeting. See y’all then.
There was a recent Rolling Stones article called 5 Reforms Millennials Should be fighting for which includes Public Banks.
Here are a couple of other sites where information on the why and wherefore of establishing a public bank can be found.
First, this PB Debate in the NY Times is interesting and includes lots of comments worth reading if you have the time.
Next, the dead-in-the-water NY State Bill re PB. Perhaps taking on the task of promoting it with our local assembly people would be useful. I called Danny O’Donnell and he signed on.
There are couple of good quotes which inspired me:
We actually need publicly owned banks for a capitalist market economy to run properly. Banking, money and credit are not market goods but are economic infrastructure, just as roads and bridges are physical infrastructure. By providing inexpensive, accessible financing to the free enterprise sector of the economy, public banks make commerce more vital and stable. Public banking is not a radical idea but has been practiced in the U.S. with excellent results for decades, and around the world for centuries.
– Ellen Brown
The state bank idea faced a setback when the Boston Federal Reserve issued a report dismissing the idea after the Massachusetts legislature agreed to explore it. But with successful public banks operating around the globe, activists in California, Oregon and Vermont in particular are not letting naysayers slow them down.
– Abby Scher
Julia Willebrand, Ed.D
Juila has suggested that we contact our state Assembly reps to encourage them to sign on to Assembly Bill A01696. (FYI, this bill calls for study by people appointed by the Gov and leaders of the state Senate and Assembly to study the idea of a NYS public bank).
Tamir suggested reaching out to the New Day, New York people who wrote a report endorsing the idea of a public bank.
I’m not sure a study by people appointed by our current leaders will move this idea forward. But I’m glad we are talking about how to promote it. I won’t be at the meeting Sunday but I do want us to keep working on this issue and will support whatever the group thinks is the best way to do so.
I agree that a bill to study the idea of a Public Bank created by “the usual suspects” might not do much. But if each of us contacts our NY Assembly and NY Senate rep,we will have raised the issue and raised the level of interest with the legislature. This lobbying effort can also provide us with some insight into where the blocks may be and will introduce the legislators to the idea that OWS is not dead despite the insistence of the MSM that we are.
Julia, Good point. I agree it would be good to contact our state legislators and make them aware there is interest in this idea.
I have been reading the Ellen Brown book “The Public Bank Solution” Julia suggested last week … and am loving it. I am very interested in pursuing this project. As Julia noted, I don’t think it is time to start contacting legislators. I’d like to first see what is going on with the New Day NY partners. And I think I overheard Josh saying there is some activity in Phili too. Would like to figure what’s up with that as well. Looking forward though … and thanks Julia for the reading suggestion. Very cool stuff.
The Philadelphia Public Bank is not as far along as I thought.
But it does seem that there is some effort there (associated with the Public Banking Institute). Here are two videos. I think it is worth reaching out and I would expect Mike Krauss would be happy to visit us. Here is a web site and two videos.
http://papublicbankproject.org/about-us
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PHcqzsluLE&feature=youtu.be (relatively short but doesn’t really tell us anything new).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z23pGhCFueo (longer, more interesting, I haven’t watched all of it)
Manny also suggested the following:
Mark Armstrong stated there is an other public bank in North America. I have been researching & contacting Bank2 at the Chickasaw Nation.
The idea of a Postal Savings Bank got a big boost from a report from the Postal Inspector General.
Read about it in Naked Capitalism, here:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/mirabile-dictu-postal-services-banking-concept-gets-big-boost.html
Or the full report here:
http://www.uspsoig.gov/sites/default/files/document-library-files/2014/rarc-wp-14-007.pdf
Elizabeth Warren has endorsed this idea.
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/21835-focus-coming-to-a-post-office-near-you-loans-you-can-trust