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In the News
Public banks can be formed in California as Newsom signs new law
By James F. Peltz, LA Times – California cities and counties will be allowed to establish public banks under a controversial bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, making California only the second U.S. state to allow such institutions. “Today’s signing sends a strong message that California is putting people before Wall Street profits,” said Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco), who co-authored the bill (AB 857) with Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles).
Public banking can fund green investment
By Eric Heath, The Hill – To ensure the long-term environmental health of the planet, we will have to spend. This spending cannot be wasteful, but must embody a pragmatic investment in our future. Estimates predict that we will have to invest $5.7 trillion worldwide annually to fund green infrastructure and conservation efforts. As a Center for Strategic and International Studies brief notes, this investment gap is concentrated in developed countries. In recognition of America’s responsibility for swift and consequential action…
Wall Street Beware: The Public Banking Movement Is Coming for You
By Robert R. Raymond, Truthout – It may not come as a surprise to hear that the majority of Americans don’t trust the banking system in this country. Only 27 percent of those surveyed in a 2016 Gallup poll said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the institution — less than half of the record high set in 1979. And the lack of trust is spread relatively evenly across the political spectrum — it’s not just liberals or those on the left: Almost everyone is fed up with the banks.
The one strategy that could finance the whole Green New Deal
By Eillie Anzilotti, Fast Company – The current banking system in the U.S. doesn’t meet the equity or environmental aims of the Green New Deal. But the push to establish government-run banks that do is gaining momentum as an alternative. For the latter half of 2016, the Standing Rock Sioux and activist allies from all over the country camped out in North Dakota to protest the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which was likely to harm their native lands through an invasive engineering process and inevitable oil spills.
California public banking bill clears another state Senate committee as momentum generates a swell of press coverage
Public Banking Institute – On July 3, California’s Public Banking Act, AB 857, passed the Senate Governance & Finance Committee 4 Aye’s to 3 No’s. In the extended hearing, Assemblymember David Chiu, the bill’s co-author, emphasized, “Something is truly broken with the present financial system.” The bill has one more committee — Senate Appropriations — before the Senate floor vote.
Facebook May Pose a Greater Danger Than Wall Street
By Ellen Brown, Truthdig – Payments can happen cheaply and easily without banks or credit card companies, as has already been demonstrated—not in the United States but in China. Unlike in the U.S., where numerous firms feast on fees from handling and processing payments, in China most money flows through mobile phones nearly for free. In 2018 these cashless payments totaled a whopping $41.5 trillion; and 90% were through Alipay and WeChat Pay, a pair of digital ecosystems that blend social media, commerce and banking. According to a 2018 article in Bloomberg titled “Why China’s Payment Apps Give U.S. Bankers Nightmares”:
Could Public Banks Help California Fund Affordable Housing?
By Sarah Holder; Citylab – A coalition of bank activists in ten California cities is pushing for public banks. A bill to support them is working its way through the state legislature. “We planted a seed,” tweeted Public Banks L.A., the day the organization’s ballot measure—which would have created the country’s first city-led public banking institution—failed last year in Los Angeles. “This is just the beginning.” Turns out, they were right.
Could Public Banks Help Cities Keep Their Money Away from Wall Street?
By Jill Cowan, California Today – When a ballot measure that would’ve allowed Los Angeles to start its own public bank was rejected by the city’s voters last year, even proponents of the idea acknowledged that it was a little far out. Get one of the nation’s largest cities to take the billions of dollars it deposits in big commercial banks and instead park that money in a financial institution that would invest it back into things like affordable housing? It sounded like a progressive pipe dream.
Why Is the Fed Paying So Much Interest to Banks?
Truthout.org; Ellen Brown/The Web of Debt Blog “If you invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound, Soon that tuppence safely invested in the bank will compound, And you’ll achieve that sense of conquest as your affluence expands In the hands of the...
Monetary policy takes center stage: MMT, QE or public banks?
A network of public banks including a central bank operated as a public utility could similarly fund a U.S. Green New Deal – without raising taxes, driving up the federal debt, or inflating prices. Nation of Change; Ellen Brown / OpEd As alarm bells sound over...
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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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