Press Room & Media
News
Ex-Ald. Ameya Pawar writing the book on why we need government-owned banks in the public interest
By Mark Brown, Chicago Sun-Times – Ameya Pawar foresees government-owned banks acting in the public interest to provide economic development and serve other societal imperatives. By handling pension fund investment in-house rather than farming it out to Wall Street managers, he said he believes public banks would save billions of dollars in fees that could be redirected locally.
California Bill to Establish Nation’s Second Public Bank Applauded as ‘Historic Challenge to Wall Street Domination’
By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams – In a move advocacy groups celebrated as a “historic challenge to Wall Street domination of municipal finances,” a pair of California state lawmakers on Thursday unveiled legislation that would establish the nation’s second publicly-owned bank and empower the institution to lend to businesses and local governments fighting to stay afloat amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bank of North Dakota Releases 2019 Annual Report: “From Surviving to Thriving”
By Bank of North Dakota – The state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND) recorded its 16th consecutive year of record profits in 2019, with $169 million in net earnings, the Bank reported today in its annual report to the state Industrial Commission (Commission). The report’s theme, “From Surviving to Thriving,” focuses on the events and accomplishments of the Bank’s 100th anniversary year.
COVID-19 exposes why the Postal Service needs to get back into the banking business
By Melanie G. Long, The Conversation – Being unbanked is costly, both financially and in terms of missed economic opportunities, and afflicts communities of color most. Being unbanked means it’s harder to develop a credit history. Without one, it is more difficult to get a mortgage loan – and thus much harder to buy a home. There’s a solution to the problem, and one that the U.S. has tried before: postal banking.
Public banking can help bridge the racial wealth gap in the post-pandemic recovery
By Ameya Pawar, Harish I. Patel, The Chicago Reporter – Imagine harnessing our deposits to create the money we need to finally address inequality, disinvestment, and institutional racism across our city and state, all without sacrificing returns. How? A public bank can help reverse the racial wealth gap by lending to Black and Brown families in search of inexpensive capital available mostly to white people.
Report: Healthy soil, local food systems key for NM agriculture
By Theresa Davis, Albuquerque Journal – New Mexico farmers sell about $3.1 billion of food products every year, but New Mexicans spend $6.5 billion annually on food grown outside of the state. Investing in local food and water systems could address health inequities exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Soil health is resilience. It is food security in emergency situations as well as for the long term.”
How to Be an Anti-Racist Bank
Oscar Perry Abello, Next City – Banks didn’t create systemic racism by themselves, and they won’t solve it by themselves. But banks have played an important role in creating and sustaining systemic racism, and Williams still believes they can play a role in ending it. Southern Bancorp is just a bank — or technically, a bank holding company, a bank, and an affiliated nonprofit.
Trump Regulators Just Rolled Back a Major Obama-Era Bank Reform
By Hannah Levintova, Mother Jones – Five federal regulatory agencies voted to roll back a key financial rule enacted following the 2008 financial crisis. The change will make it easier for banks to invest in venture capital and will tweak some restrictions on bank investing in hedge funds and private equity—all forms of riskier investing that Congress limited after 2010.
Will New York Launch a Public Bank?
By Sadef Ali Kully, CityLimits – Now is the time to create a public banking system as the New York City prepares for deep budget cuts amid an inequitable economic crisis stemming from the Coronavirus pandemic. Through public banking, New York can reinvest in local communities and strengthen their economy. Now is the time to create a public banking system as the city prepares for deep budget cuts.
The pandemic made the racial wealth gap worse: These 8 policies could fix it
By Kristin Toussaint, Fast Company – As lawmakers plan our country’s economic recovery from the pandemic, it’s an opportunity to address the decades-old racial wealth gap. From postal banking to Medicare for All to baby bonds, this series of proposals to build our way out of the recession would also help build generational wealth in communities that have been shut out of opportunities.
Upcoming Events
Stakeholders from across New Mexico are invited to contribute to the formation of a Clean Energy Economy Roadmap as part of the virtual town hall. As a clean energy industry matures within the state, the associated commercial, educational, workforce, and entrepreneurial opportunities for rural and urban centers alike, are expanding. The town hall’s intent is to inform a Roadmap, designed to harness regional opportunities through regional stakeholder input, in support of a clean energy ecosystem in New Mexico. This free, half-day town hall meeting will be hosted with Zoom. Registered participants will receive the town hall Zoom link on Aug. 4 as part of a reminder email message. Registration closes Aug. 4 at 12 p.m. View agenda and speakers by following 
Bring your lunch and eat while we zoom! The League of Women Voters presents their monthly community event, Lunch with a Leader on August 18, at 11:45 a.m. This month will feature three women who have been working to extend knowledge about the establishment of a public bank. The zoom information is below the bios of our leaders. Be sure to click or cut and paste on the link to get your zoom info emailed to you.
California’s New Public Banking Option Opens Door for Real Community Investment
FAIR / Truthout.org
Economy & Labor
Oct 22, 2019
Janine Jackson interviews Public Bank LA’s Trinity Tran about public banking for the October 11, 2019, episode of “CounterSpin.”
Ellen Brown’s
2019 Book
Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.
“I had the good fortune to work on this initiative before Bernie kidnapped all my time. This is one of those no-brainer initiatives that only the 1% could oppose. It has the potential to save the state millions of dollars by vastly reducing the cost of its bonds to improve infrastructure funding. in a public bank, our state funds can be used to build our local economy and our local infrastructure.”
– Paul Gibson
Retake Our Democracy