The only thing wrong with a lot of aspects of the world is the small group controlling them. There is nothing inherent to social media, for instance, that makes it produce discontent and divisiveness. The small groups controlling the major platforms determined it is in their interests to use them to produce discontent and divisiveness.
Same with Banks.
The Fed can jawbone all it wants about Liquidity and Main Street, but it takes private banks to do it in the U.S.
They won’t. The haven’t for a long time. They have better things to do with their money, like going after bigger scores than Main Street can provide. Period, the end.
If you believe that we can make deep structural reform in order to make the United States more democratic, less unequal, and just plain work better, there is nothing more efficacious than public banking.
Few people know it, but the concept is thriving in one small state — the Bank of North Dakota (BND) has provided services to actual people when private banks will not since 1919. It is a model and an up-and-running precedent.
OK, it’s a long way from Bismarck to Washington, D.C.
Well, maybe not. It’s hard to imagine the private financial service giants sitting still while Public Banking takes off in any form, but these are unpredictable times.
Maybe one of three Bills before Congress right now will draw attention and come to stand for something. The Postal Banking Act is sponsored by Senators Sanders and Gillibrand. It could help revive public banking and the Post Office at the same time.
I believe that any chance for non-violent progressive reform has to feature Banking as a Public Utility. The saving and lending functions are no more inherently destabilizing to society than social networks. Banking is simply being used that way now.
From Goldman-Sachs in Malaysia to HCSB’s drug money, it’s all out there. Wells-Fargo can’t say they didn’t make up accounts to drain people’s money. They’re guilty.
I grew up in a middle-sized city dominated by a liberally-oriented employer — Eastman Kodak. Kodak had its own financial institution, Eastman Savings & Loan. Its function was to help Kodak employees become homeowners. My Father worked at ES&L his entire career and whenever I went anywhere with him as a child, it seemed like everyone knew him.
This is not a call to restore a romantic period when private S&Ls may have felt some sense of community.
It is a call to consider and hopefully establish publicly controlled financial service organizations, because we have seen that without public involvement any private form of banking will to seek greater returns than serving a community can generate.
If you would like to dig deeper into this important topic, there is one clear and obvious way to do it: Read and Follow Ellen Brown.