[Occupymendocino] [Fwd: Saving Our Economy With Public Banking, Carl Gibson, RSN, 20130518]

[agnes at mcn.org]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Saving Our Economy With Public Banking, Carl Gibson, RSN, 20130518
From:    "Dan Hamburg" <vote at pacific.net>
Date:    Sat, May 18, 2013 11:39 am
To:      "'Board of Supervisors'" <bos at co.mendocino.ca.us>
         "Carmel Angelo" <angeloc at co.mendocino.ca.us>
         parkert at co.mendocino.ca.us
         "Shari Schapmire" <schapmis at co.mendocino.ca.us>
Cc:      agnes at mcn.org
         "'Jessie VanSant'" <vjessielee at gmail.com>
         "'Steve Scalmanini'" <sscalmanini at yahoo.com>
         sako4 at comcast.net
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


“Luckily, the Public Banking Institute is teaching everyone how we can make
that happen at their 2013 conference at Dominican University from June 2-4
in San Rafael.”


Saving Our Economy With Public Banking


by Carl Gibson

Reader Supported News

18 May 13

Imagine if your only choice for food came from genetically-modified crops.
You would likely suffer regular health problems
<http://seedsofdeception.com/genetic-roulette/65-health-risks/> , be at a
higher risk for numerous crippling diseases, and have no choice but to
accept that as a fact of life. But what if, one day, you came across a
farmer's market where you could buy locally-produced, organically-grown,
healthy fruits and vegetables at a fraction of the cost of GMO food.
Wouldn't you switch immediately and never go back? Your body would heal and
you'd feel great.

Similarly, most US states, with the exception of North Dakota (we'll get
there in a minute) have no choice but to depend on big Wall Street banks for
the money necessary to build critical infrastructure, most of which comes
with obscene interest rates and get-rich-quick schemes like capital
appreciation loans. These are concocted by predatory bankers intending to
bleed municipalities and counties dry, from Jefferson County, Alabama
<http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/the-continual-screwing-
of-jefferson-county-alabama-20110531> , to Napa Valley, California
<http://www.sfgate.com/education/article/School-districts-pay-dearly-for-bon
ds-4237868.php> . But public banking could be the antidote to free us from
our dependency on Wall Street and put monetary power in the people's hands.
In short, our economy would heal and we'd all feel great.

Despite its name, the Federal Reserve is a private corporation
<http://www.truth-out.org/speakout/item/13984-lets-nationalize-the-federal-r
eserve> , unaccountable to our government and autonomous in its operation.
Even though the president appoints the chairman and the board of governors,
the Federal Reserve and its 12 regional branches in America's major cities
are dominated largely by Wall Street. Through the devious process of
fractional reserve banking
<http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2012/no-1298-oc
tober-2012/fractional-reserve-banking-refuted> , it has complete control
over our monetary policy, as well as responsibility for price control and
establishing long-term interest rates. It shouldn't be any surprise to
anyone that this private corporation allows Wall Street to withdraw billions
of dollars at 0.75% interest
<http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/money_12849.htm>  while homeowners and
college students who depend on those same banks for loans have to pay far
higher rates. The buddy-buddy relationship the Federal Reserve has with Wall
Street was fully revealed after the Fed's first official audit in 2011, when
the Fed's records showed they had dished out $16 trillion in bailouts
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/traceygreenstein/2011/09/20/the-feds-16-trillio
n-bailouts-under-reported/>  to not just US banks, but foreign banks as
well. That's a trillion dollars more than the United States' entire GDP for
2011 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29> .

The Fed posted a whopping $77.4 billion
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/21/federal-reserve-profit-2011_n_1369
354.html>  in profit in 2011. While, to its credit, the Fed gave almost all
of their profits back to the U.S. Treasury, those profits were made while
buying up the same toxic mortgage-backed securities that Wall Street
intentionally created to fail while enriching themselves. The Fed's
quantitative easing policy, known as QE3, is simultaneously shoveling $40
billion per week
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-13/fed-plans-to-buy-40-billion-in-mor
tgage-securities-each-month.html>  into the black hole of Wall Street's
coffers to keep buying up these worthless, obtuse financial instruments. The
Fed claims that quantitative easing has helped create or save almost
2,000,000 jobs since 2008, and while that may be true, the people could
probably find a much better way to spend $40 billion a month and create and
save far more jobs.

The Bank of North Dakota
<http://www.alternet.org/corporate-accountability-and-workplace/why-socialis
m-doing-so-darn-well-deep-red-north-dakota> , while ensconced in a deep
Republican stronghold, is one of America's best kept secrets. It began in
the early 20th century as a way for farmers to deposit and borrow money
without having to depend on the big, corrupt banks in New York and Chicago.
The BND holds the state's tax revenues instead of Wall Street, and makes
loans to the community at a reasonable rate through a partnership with 80
other community banks across North Dakota. And as a public bank, the BND has
a policy of not engaging in Wall Street gambling schemes like derivatives
trading, subprime mortgage lending or the credit default swap market.
Because of that, North Dakota's public bank will never need a bailout from
the taxpayers.

Because the privately-operated Federal Reserve still has a monopoly on our
money supply, the BND still has to ultimately borrow money from the private
banking cartel. However, the BND still supplies tens of millions of dollars
to the state treasury every year that can be used for badly-needed
investments in things like schools, healthcare and transportation
infrastructure. Imagine if we could nationalize the Fed and our money
supply, using the BND's model for all 50 states to safely deposit their
money and make low-interest loans available to everyday homeowners and small
business owners! It would bring Wall Street to its knees.

Luckily, the Public Banking Institute is teaching everyone how we can make
that happen at their 2013 conference at Dominican University from June 2-4
in San Rafael, California. Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic
Parliament (and the Pirate Party), will be speaking about her fight to hold
the Icelandic banks that ruined her country's economy accountable.
Investigative journalist Matt Taibbi, who has written extensively about Wall
Street's pillaging of local economies through obscure financial trickery,
will be speaking as well. You can learn more about the conference by
clicking here
<http://publicbanking.wordpress.com/2013/02/12/pbis-annual-public-banking-co
nference-2013-june-2-4-2013-san-rafael-ca-please-join-us-2/> . Let's take
our money, our economy, and our power back.



  _____

Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative
direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against
corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the
Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured
in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance
Film Festival. He currently lives in Madison, Wisconsin. You can contact him
at carl at rsnorg.org, and follow him on twitter at @uncutCG.







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