Press Room & Media
In the News
Another Bank Bailout Under Cover of a Virus
By Ellen Brown, Common Dreams – “The justification of private profit,” said President Franklin Roosevelt in a 1938 address, “is private risk.” Banking has now been made virtually risk-free, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States and its people. The American people are therefore entitled to share in the benefits and the profits. Banking needs to be made a public utility.
Five Proposals to Reshape Banking After Coronavirus
By Oscar Perry Abello, Next City – COVID-19 has inspired ideas about the way our economy could be reformed to be more fair, more transparent and more beneficial. Some of the ideas floating around to change the banking sector are closer to a reality than others. Here are some of the ones we’ll be watching closely as the COVID-19 pandemic drags out into an economic recession and eventual recovery.
How a North Dakota bank gave its state a huge lift in the coronavirus small business program
By Andrew Van Dam, The Washington Post – In the first few chaotic weeks of the Paycheck Protection Program, federal officials and banks throughout the country struggled to get bailout funds to small businesses as layoffs and furloughs climbed into the tens of millions. But there was one exception, a place where loans found their mark more quickly than any other: North Dakota.
Small Banks Play Outsized Role
By Stephen Hamway, Albuquerque Journal – Small, community banks have been punching above their weight in keeping local businesses afloat during the COVID- 19 pandemic, according to head of a trade group for independent bankers. Community banks were responsible for around 50% of the loans, despite housing only 20% of the nation’s assets, providing community banks, including the 34 that operate in New Mexico, a chance to grow by adding new small businesses as customers.
With meat plant closures and meat shortages on horizon, can cattle ranchers survive?
By Christina Carreon, NM Political Report – With New Mexico’s cattle industry enduring a years-long downward trend, the COVID-19 virus presents yet another obstacle in an already challenging time for New Mexico’s farmers. Some ranchers are scrambling to adapt, while some consider selling their ranches as one of New Mexico’s biggest agricultural cash commodities struggles to stay afloat.
Small Banks Save Small Businesses, So Why Aren’t There More Small Banks?
By Oscar Perry Abello, Next City – With fewer community banks around, it’s obvious why small business loans have been falling in both dollar amounts and as a percentage of all loans. The COVID-19 pandemic and the PPP program have simply blown the lid wide open on the net effect of the slow but steady disappearance of smaller lenders over the past few decades.
Small Banks ‘Punched Above Their Weight’ for Paycheck Protection Program
By Next City – Banks with less than $1 billion in assets hold just 6 percent of all the money in banks in the U.S., but they and other small lenders approved 20 percent of the Paycheck Protection Program loan dollars that went out. Many community banks approved all applicants, not for the profit, but to assure that the community will survive the pandemic.
Sen. Gillibrand proposes new legislation to help U.S. Postal Service
Lara Morales, The Legislative Gazette – On April 28th, U.S. Sentator Kristen Gillibrand proposed that her legislation, the Postal Banking Act, is necessary to protect the USPS. Gillibrand announced the legislation would create postal banks, which would establish a retail bank in the U.S. Postal Service’s 30,000 locations. This would provide essential banking services to low-income Americans, particularly communities of color and rural communities.
Small Businesses Were at a Breaking Point. Small Banks Came to the Rescue.
By Peter Rudegeair, Orla McCaffrey and Liz Hoffman, The Washington Post – Where big banks are favoring certain customers for PPP loans and delaying loan-taking processes with web-portals, many local lenders are taking all comers and processing loans instantly. The coronavirus has given beaten-down small banks an opportunity to show their price.
Current Economic Policies Have Capitalism on Life Support: Effective Actions to Rescue It
By Mohamad Shaaf, CounterPunch – A speedy recovery from our current economic crisis requires adjusting the structure of the economy toward a steady and speedy flow of capital in circulation by removing obstacles, and calibrating and coordinating different parts of the financial sector. Policies must be instituted as soon as possible, and those that have just passed Congress should be reversed.
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Episode: Everyone deserves a public bank
“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
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