"It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." --Henry Ford, Ford Motor Co.
"Well, we're starting to understand and this is the beginning of the revolution...the banking revolution." --Ellen Brown, Occupy LA Teach-In, author of Web of Debt, Founder of the Public Banking Institute.
Public banks are...
Viable solutions to the present economic crises in the US & world.
Owned by the people of a state or community.
Economically sustainable, because they operate transparently according to applicable banking regulations.
Able to offset pressures for tax increases with returned credit income to the community.
Ready sources of affordable credit for local governments, eliminating the need for large "rainy day" funds, with interest payments returning back to government coffers.
Counter-cyclical, meaning they are capable of reducing the negative impact of recessions, because they can make money available for local governments and businesses precisely when private banks decrease lending.
Potentially available to any-sized government or community able to meet the requirements for setting up a bank.
Required to promote the public interest, as defined in their charters.
Run by professional bankers, not politicians.
Administered by salaried public servants, who do not receive huge bonuses, or commissions or fees for generating loans.
Constitutional, as ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Not speculative ventures that maximize profits in the short term, without regard to the long-term interests of the public.
Public Banking...
Keeping Our Deposits Safe, Local, and Working for Local Economies
The Example of the 100-year-old State-Owned Bank of North Dakota
The state-owned Bank of North Dakota was born through the efforts of the Non-Partisan League in response to ND's economy being run by an out-of-state cartel of Minnesota grain brokers, bankers, and railroads. The League's platform was an ambitious plan for regaining control of the state's economy. The League was successful, and in 1919, the state Legislature passed bill HB18, which established the Bank of North Dakota.
Less than six weeks after HB18 was signed, the Bank of North Dakota was ready for business.
Victoria Grant on money creation and the case of Canada...
"It has become painfully obvious even for me, a 12-year-old Canadian, that we are being defrauded and robbed by the banking system and a complicit government." --Victoria Grant.
Canada borrowing from its own public central bank vs. borrowing from private banks...and its ensuing debt servitude.
Between 1939 and 1974, the Canadian government actually did borrow from its own central bank. The debt shot up only after 1974, when the Basel Committee was established by the central-bank Governors of the Group of Ten countries of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), which included Canada.
What is MONEY?
Money
is anything that people will accept in exchange for goods
or services, in the belief that they may, in turn, exchange it, now or
later, for other goods or services.
Money has taken many forms, including shells, beaver pelts, coins,
paper notes, and now accounting entries on a computer. It is an
abstract social invention used to facilitate transactions beyond the
barter process. Around 340 BC, Aristotle wrote:
"Money exists not
by nature but by law." (www.monetary.org)
How is money different from wealth?
Money should not be confused with wealth. Wealth is the productive combination of resources
and labor. Money itself is only a claim to wealth, not wealth itself.
Thus, Main St. produces wealth, not Wall Street.
Why Public Banking?
...because fixing our monetary and banking systems is fundamental to addressing all other issues, such as war, poverty, health care, economic and political justice, etc.
"All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in the Constitution or confederation, not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation." --President John Adams
"The populist program of decentralizing political and
economic power
continues to hold the greatest promise for
ensuring not only political and economic justice, but a sustain
able social and natural world." --Adrian Kuzminski,
Fixing
the System: A History of Populism, Ancient & Modern
Why Public Banking?
Our privatized monetary and
banking system serves the 0.01% by design.
It's run by private interests who manipulate the system for their own benefit and it provides a systemic means of transferring wealth from Main Street to Wall Street. In order to achieve economic and political justice, We the People must reclaim the "Money Power" with publicly-owned banks.
Let's require our monetary and banking systems serve the public interest, and not just the 0.01%.
Banks DO create money from nothing by bookkeeping entry...
How is money created?
In our current system,
banks create money, by bookkeeping entry, in the form of bank deposits (checkbook money) when
they extend loans. In the process of extending a loan, both a loan (an asset) and a deposit
liability are created--that is, no net asset is created. The important thing to remember is that when banks lend money, they don't necessarily take it from anyone else to lend--they "create" it.
The Problem of Interest...
Debt is an essential tool for financing public (& private) infrastructure, spreading the costs over several decades of use. The problem is interest.
Interest, which is almost always compounded, results in exponentially increasing interest and debt, as well as exponentially increasing bank assets and financial profits. In the article,
It's the Interest, Stupid! Why Bankers Rule the World, Ellen Brown explains how we can eliminate the burden of interest by recapturing it with our own publicly-owned banks, at the state/local and federal levels.
...is minimized when the interest goes back to government coffers
Sovereignty and the Monetary System
"Give me control of a nation's money and I care not who makes it's laws." --Mayer Amschel Bauer Rothschild
No sovereign government should ever, under any circumstances, give over democratic control of its money supply to bankers.
No sovereign government should ever, under any circumstances, borrow any money from any private bank.
No national, provincial, or local government should
borrow
foreign money to increase purchases abroad when there is excessive domestic unemployment.
Governments, like businesses, should distinguish between
"capital" and "current" expenditures, and when it is prudent to do so, finance capital improvements with money the government has created for itself.
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Payday loans for school districts. In 2009, the lenders' lobbying group than proposed and promoted AB1388, a California bill eliminating the debt ceiling requirement on long-term debt for school districts. Now, some California school districts paying 10+ dollars for every dollar borrowed.
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http://www.monetary.org/
The Public Bank Solution, written by Ellen Brown, is a MUST READ for anyone has any interest in fixing our world. Ellen Brown's previous book, "Web of Debt: The shocking truth about our Monetary System and How we Can Break Free," explains what is wrong with the world, how those who call the shots have obtained and maintain their power via our privatized monetary and banking system, and how WE can FIX it. Monetary reform, i.e., reclaiming the money power, is fundamental to solving all our problems of war, poverty, health care, economic and political injustice. It is clear that We the People must reclaim the MONEY POWER with Publicly-Owned Banks! The Public Bank Solution is a GREAT solution -- it is just, it is practical, it works, and it EXISTS! Check out the success of the 100-year-old state-owned Bank of North Dakota! Ellen Brown's book, "The Public Bank Solution," is a MUST READ, a great resource, a great reference, a great education, on the public bank solution which is fundamental to solving what ails us. Ellen's well-written and well-researched book, with each of 36 chapters nicely summarized in a paragraph at the beginning of each chapter, makes this book the GO-TO book for those who want to understand, advocate, propose, and implement the PUBLIC BANK SOLUTION.
barter process. Around 340 BC, Aristotle wrote:
"Money exists not
by nature but by law." 
banking system serves the 0.01% by design.
It's run by private interests who manipulate the system for their own benefit and it provides a systemic means of transferring wealth from Main Street to Wall Street. In order to achieve economic and political justice, We the People must reclaim the "Money Power" with publicly-owned banks.
they extend loans. In the process of extending a loan, both a loan (an asset) and a deposit
liability are created--that is, no net asset is created. The important thing to remember is that when banks lend money, they don't necessarily take it from anyone else to lend--they "create" it.
purchases abroad when there is excessive domestic unemployment.
