Followup — More States May Create Public Banks

Here is a followup report in Yes! Magazine on the growing state-owned bank movement:

“More States May Create Public Banks”

5 Responses

  1. Do we replace one set of crooks with a new set of crooks (politicians)? This opens the door to more corruption, example i.e. Fanny , Freddie. The problem it seems to me is central banking and central governments… History shows us politicians need money and bankers need politicians, that cozy relationship always ends up enslaving the masses… Lets try something a little more beneficial for the little guy…no central banking, reduce central governments to extremely basic functions, no mega banks.. and coin only the money we are worth..outlaw deficit spending at all levels of government.

  2. Dean:

    I agree with you that our history of govt corruption is very frustrating and vexing and does turn one “off” of the government thing. I also see alternatives to govt have problems too, as small government can mean too weak or non-existent referee, which leads to goons breaking the unenforced rules and taking over.

    As you are rightfully concerned about, we can have parasites in the form of a bloated central, powerful government that is controlled and corrupted by wealthy, connected people. We can also have parasites in a society with a very weak govt that provides no resistance to oligarchs, cartels, trusts, monopolies. Both of these scenarios mean our common wealth is sucked away from us and our economy is made stagnant, while the financial ticks bloat themselves on regular folks blood.

    I like to use analogies to sort out my thinking (probably a sign of my limited complexity :)… So I wonder things like this:
    What would we do about a corrupt local police force? Stop government policing? If we previously had decent, fair, professional police but they got corrupted by local mobster, and thus the police, paid by taxpayers, acted as a military arm of the mobster, would we say the solution was to abandon idea of democratically controlled, publicly funded police dept and simply let other mobsters rise up and compete with previously state-sponsored mobster? I tend to think the best solution would be clean up the police force and keep the mobsters at bay so regular law-abiding folks can walk the streets without getting shaken down. If police corruption got really bad, we might fire all the cops and start the whole org over again, implement all kinds of public watch dogging, like loyalty tests (fake bribes), video cameras on all the cops on duty, get someone with a whole history and career of clean public service to take over dept etc…

    While we have many examples of current corruption, we also have many examples that show its possible to have govt without corruption, so I don’t think all govt must be abolished to avoid corruption. ND state bank proves its possible. Many local police forces are clean and very responsive to their citizens while the sheriffs in KY, the PDs in NYC and New Orleans do not have such a good reputations. I think our common enemy is not govt but rather parasites that usurp power that should be in hands of the people for our common good.

    You seem to have a healthy skepticism about the government and how people, when not checked, will grab power and use it for bad/selfish purposes. So I think you would agree that in absence of an organized force opposing such bad types, likely someone bad will seize power.

    To me this means that without a democratic governmental power enforcing laws, then the biggest bully or wealthiest group/person wins. So in my mind, if someone must have power, is it not best for the power to in the hands of the people exerting democratic controls that best ensure our founding principles of equality, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…for the common-wealth.

    And, you might have noticed, Ellen is opposed to central banks just as you appear to be…I see CBers as unconstitutional Frankensteins that are not govt agencies but rather a cartel of private bankers who have usurped our democratic right to control our monetary system and I see the Central Banks as not signs of too big govt but rather a case of too weak govt due to non-vigilant citizens, so this elite gang has the power, rather than citizens and the rule of law.

    I do not see the people running private businesses as inherently more trustworthy than the people running govt, both can be a force for good and both can be bad actors..In my mind, both must be watched and checked, as no one should be above the law… Are Citibank or Indymac or GoldmanSacs automatically going to better for our commonwealth because they are private. Are private business less likely to engage in fraud and skimming than a govt agency head?

    Govts can be corrupted and bloated and private businesses can have overly-compensated execs, engage in fraud, do things that are dangerous and risky to others while profitable for them, they can be anti-competitive/monopolistic behavior and can persistently look for unfair ways to get over on their competition. see Savings and Loan crises, Enron, Goldman Sacs…

    In my mind, we should not be all in with just govt or just private businesses, rather we should be vigilant and tough watchdogs and enforcers of fair laws applied to all. In an economic sector where competition and private market choices and pricing is helpful, such as say, consumer goods, we should keep govt out, beyond being a good, clean referee. However, in the case of economic sectors that lend themselves to sole source solutions, like say utilities…we should have these services provided by either a completely public agency or by a highly regulated business, so likely abuses of such a monopolistic position can be controlled by citizens.

  3. A state bank backed by gold; but a bank that can amortize a signature and loan without any assets is just an extension of the federal reserve ponzi scheme

    • This writer is expressing ideas that everyone has who has just begun an economic study and stopped further study after 5 to 10 minutes.

  4. i’ve never read anything about the fed res that is so right as what Ellen Brown has. She gets it and her suggestion for a state owned bank or federal bank is the best possible solution. It would take some good decent people to make it work, but it has the most promise. It would work just the way she says, I’ve studied this issue for many years and it is exactly what i concluded along time ago. Sign me up!!!

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