After many months of preparation and peer review, the Vermonters for a New Economy group has finally completed the study of the economic impacts of a public bank in Vermont. Highlights include:
- over 2,500 new jobs created
- over $190M in new economic value added
- over $340M in additional gross state product
- the existing institutions already have the capital to establish a bank, no new appropriation or bonding needed.
- recommendation that VEDA’s authority be expanded to include banking, which is what S. 204 proposes this year.
Read the study here.
Filed under: Ellen Brown Articles/Commentary |
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This needs to spread across every state & province across N. America it’s time to break the stranglehold of the banksters.
Agreed, we need more people running for office.
Can someone give me a layperson’s explanation of the advantages of a public bank over and above member-owned credit unions? The later have been around for some time with no significant impact on the abuses of private banks.
The biggest difference and advantage is that being owned by the government, a public bank returns all of its profits back to the government, which can be used to lower taxes or provide more government services. Almost half of the cost of public works projects, like the S.F. Bay bridge, is interest that goes to private banks who just create the money on their books in the first place. So we’ve been suckers for a long time, funneling huge amounts of money unnecessarily to private banks. It is a glaring economic inefficiency that should end. Other big advantages are: 1) that public banks, like the Bank of North Dakota, have mandates to serve local economies, and do–making positive economic things happen not out the profit motive but because that is what they’re there for, 2) lower operating costs since, among other things, they have no need to pay CEOs big money, 3) acting counter-cyclically–when the economy gets slow they can step up loans to help people instead of cutting back on them out of fear like private banks, and 4) being safer than private banks.
Thanks, ErnieM. Makes sense.
My only problem with Ellen Brown’s defense of the state bank is claiming that the bank is responsible for ND overall econ success. This is wrong and holds false hope for others a model. Their oil boom is the reason they are currently in the black and have low unemployment etc. It’s also very rural and doesn’t have the urban issues most other states have. As a result their issues are far simpler and less expensive than most other states. By coupling the bank to the overall econ of ND Ms. Brown is acting like a classic pol – over promise and under deliver.
Well Alberta has the Tar Sands & plenty of other natural resources but no state bank (Albertans are the red necks of Canada). They have also misspent their oil royalties & are no longer booming.
It is not enough to have natural resources.
In contrast, Norway has done an excellent job of managing its oil resources, with several state banks, & they are the richest country per capita in the world.
So, Pete, show some hope & stash the cynicism. Doing nothing is what the Koch Brothers want you to do.
I like the state banks but i don’t want her to over promise. As u pt out there are many varibles to an econ.
Can someone direct me to the journal that peer reviewed the study?
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