- The 1913 Federal Reserve Act let powerful bankers usurp
America's money system in violation of the Constitution's Article I, Section
8, giving only Congress the power to "coin Money (and) regulate the
Value thereof...." Thereafter, powerful bankers victimized working
Americans, using money, credit and debt for private self-enrichment by
bankrolling and colluding with Congress and administrations to implement
laws favoring them.
-
- As a result, decades of deregulation, outsourcing, economic
financialization, and casino capitalism followed, eroding purchasing power,
producing asset bubbles, record budget and national debt levels, and depression-sized
unemployment far higher than reported numbers, manipulated to look better.
-
- After financial crisis erupted in late 2007, harder than
ever Main Street hard times followed, getting worse, not better. As a result,
high levels of personal and business bankruptcies resulted. Millions of
homes have been lost. Record numbers of Americans are impoverished. An
unprecedented wealth gap grows steadily. America's unstable economy lurches
from one crisis to another, the current one miring Main Street in depression,
still in its early stages.
-
- Recovery is pure illusion. Today's contagion spread out-of-control
globally. No one's sure how to contain it, so Wall Street got trillions
of dollars in a desperate attempt to socialize losses, privatize profits,
and pump life back into a corpse through grand theft by sucking public
wealth to the financial sector, other corporate favorites, and America's
aristocracy already with too much.
-
- Speculation and debt need more of it to prosper, but
ultimately it's a losing game. The greater the expansion, the harder it
falls, especially when credit contraction persists. Job creation is moribund.
Industrial America keeps imploding. High-paying jobs are exported. Economic
prospects are eroding. Workers are exploited for greater corporate profits,
and no one's sure how to revive stable, sustainable long-term growth.
-
- Privatized money control is the problem, representing
democracy's greatest threat. Regaining public control can restore it. The
time for launching public banking across America is now when more than
ever it's needed.
-
- Cause and Effect
-
- Economist Michael Hudson explains that "debt leveraging"
caused America's economic collapse, so piling on more exacerbates conditions,
especially the way it's done:
-
- -- by bailing out giant Wall Street banks;
- -- letting them used trillions in public funds for more
speculation, big bonuses, and acquisitions, not direct lending to revive
growth;
-
- -- not acting as a lender of last resort to facilitate
private investment to create jobs, turn around a sick economy, and stimulate
demand; and
-
- -- letting federal debt unproductively skyrocket to stratospheric
levels, affirming Adam Smith's dictum that no country ever repaid theirs,
especially the kind banking cartels create in lieu of workable alternatives
not taken.
-
- Key among them is:
-
- -- nationalizing the Fed; returning money creation power
to Congress;
-
- -- abolishing Wall Street's franchise;
-
- -- breaking up giant banks;
-
- -- liquidating insolvent too-big-to-fail ones; and
- -- replacing them with publicly run banks, providing
low-interest loans to businesses, farmers, communities, households, students,
and other worthy borrowers as a way to revive and sustain inflation-free
prosperity. It's no pipe dream. It's real. It happened before and can again.
Short of that, according to Hudson:
-
- "debt service will (keep) crowd(ing) out spending
on goods and services and there will be no recovery. Debt deflation will
drag the economy down while assets are transferred further into the hands
of the wealthiest 10% of the population (mainly the top 1%), operating
via the financial sector."
-
- Eventually the economy will collapse, but not Wall Street,
profiting hugely with public handouts - aided and abetted by corrupted
public officials, turning America into what Hudson calls a "zombie
economy" and banana republic.
-
- Workable Alternatives Can Prevent It
-
- Ellen Brown's extraordinary book titled, "Web of
Debt" explains how private money power trapped Americans in debt and
how they can break free. At issue is private v. publicly created credit,
Brown saying:
-
- "Readily available credit made America 'the land
of opportunity' ever since the days of the American colonists. What transformed
this credit system into a Ponzi scheme, that must continually be propped
up with bailout money, is that the credit power has been turned over to
private bankers who always require more money back than they create"
because they charge high interest rates for maximum profits.
-
- In contrast, when federal, state or local governments
lend their own money, profit isn't at issue so rates can be low and affordable
to businesses, farmers, and private individuals. Moreover, for federal
and municipality needs, government-issued credit is interest-free.
-
- Brown explained that "fractional reserve banking"
dates from the 17th century, done then mainly in gold and silver coins.
Early bankers soon realized it was simpler to use deposit receipts (called
notes) as a means of payment so they began creating money by making loans
through promises to pay, and more could be issued than the amount of coins
on hand as only enough were needed to service redemptions - today's idea
of a reserve requirement.
-
- What began earlier as notes, today are accounting entries
that literally create money out of thin air. Moreover, it works the same
for government as for privately-owned banks, except as publicly-run institutions,
their mandate greatly differs:
-
- -- they don't have to earn profits;
-
- -- they're not beholden to Wall Street or shareholders;
and
-
- -- only the state, community, (or federal government's)
creditworthiness matters. So far, in over 230 years, no state ever went
out of business, and, except for Arkansas during the Great Depression,
none ever defaulted, even when poorly governed.
- Further, they can lend to themselves and municipalities
interest-free, as well as to businesses, farmers, and individuals at low
affordable rates to create sustainable, inflation-free growth. Moreover,
the more often loans roll over, the more debt-free money is created - inflation-free
if used productively for growth, not speculation, big bonuses and other
excesses.
-
- In fact, as long as new money produces goods and services,
inflation can't occur. Only imbalances cause problems - "when 'demand'
(money) exceeds 'supply' (goods and services)." Price stability is
assured when both increase proportionally, and that's exactly how it worked
in colonial America and under Lincoln during the Civil War.
-
- Colonial America's success is explained below. An earlier
chapter discussed Lincoln's achievements, reviewed again below. Brown's
"Web of Debt" also covered early 20th century Australia under
its publicly-run Commonwealth Bank. Like others, it created money, made
loans, and collected interest at a fraction of what private bankers charge.
It worked well enough, in fact, for the country to have one of the highest
global living standards at the time.
-
- However, once private bankers took over, Australia became
heavily indebted, its living standard falling precipitously. It showed
benefits possible by government created credit compared to privatized banking
power destructiveness - Australia one of several examples of what works
best. "Web of Debt" explained them, including:
-
- -- colonial America;
-
- -- Lincoln's achievements;
-
- ---- the Middle Ages, falsely portrayed as a backward
and impoverishing era saved only by industrial capitalism; in fact, under
its banker-free tally system, it prospered for hundreds of years;
-
- -- China did for thousands of years before the privatized
banking, and today because Beijing directs The People's Bank of China (its
semi-independent central bank) to grow the nation's economy and create
millions of jobs for its burgeoning population; and
-
- -- Venezuela under its public service mandated quasi-public/private
system, a topic a previous chapter explained about a far more stable/responsible
system than America's predatory Fed-run one.
-
- Imagine the possibilities under public banks:
-
- -- federal, state and local debt could be substantially
reduced or eliminated;
-
- -- so could personal and payroll taxes federal taxes;
-
- -- America's manufacturing base could be rebuilt;
-
- -- social programs could be funded inflation-free;
-
- -- vital infrastructure projects could be undertaken
on a scale never before imagined, including cleaning up the environment
and developing alternate, sustainable, clean, safe, affordable energy sources;
-
- -- millions of new good-paying jobs could be created,
ending unemployment for everyone able work; and for those willing but unable,
aid could be provided;
-
- -- foreclosures would end, and the dream of home ownership
would be reachable for everyone because mortgages would be plentiful, cheap,
and not designed to scam the unwary;
-
- -- booms and busts would end;
-
- -- destructive currency devaluations and economic warfare
for private gain no longer would threaten;
-
- -- private pensions, savings, and investments would be
secure;
- -- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid would be secure
in perpetuity;
- -- Washington, the states and local communities could
produce comfortable surpluses; and
- -- sustained prosperity overall would result, providing
everyone affordable or free healthcare, education, and other essential
social benefits.
- It's not pie-in-the-sky. In colonial America, it worked
impressively, first Massachusetts in 1691 with its own paper money called
scrip, backed by the government's full faith and credit. Other colonies
followed, freeing them from British banks, letting their economies prosper,
inflation-free, with no taxation for 25 years, paying no interest to bankers.
The secret wasn't issuing too much. It was recycling money into local economies
for productive growth. Wherever it's been tried, it's work impressively.
Brown's "Web of Debt" explained it.
-
- Lincoln did the same thing with government-created money,
interest free. What followed turned America into an industrial giant by
launching the steel industry, a continental railroad system, and new era
of farm machinery and cheap tools. Free education was also established.
The Homestead Act gave settlers ownership rights and encouraged land development.
Government supported science.
-
- Mass production methods were standardized. Labor productivity
rose exponentially during America's greatest growth period before the Fed's
1913 creation changed everything.
-
- Now's the time to change back by replacing their franchise
with public banking, giving federal, state and local governments their
own money system, interest-free to grow their areas and the nation sustainably
and impressively, interest-free with low or no taxes. America's lacked
it for the last century.
-
- Doing so would revolutionize the country en route perhaps
to ending predatory capitalism entirely, the ultimate aim, replacing a
destructive system with an equitable one, serving everyone fairly.
-
- More Evidence Why It's Needed
-
- A new US census report offers more evidence why, saying
one-fourth of US counties are dying (760 of 3,142), meaning they're showing
more deaths than births. Why is at issue - because of the deepening economic
crisis causing record high unemployment, home foreclosures, and human misery.
According to Professor Kenneth Johnson:
-
- "The downturn in the US economy is only exacerbating
the problem. In some cases, the only thing that can pull an area out is
an influx of young Hispanic immigrants or new economic development,"
not forthcoming.
-
- University of Albany senior fellow James Follain said,
"The housing (market decline) is creating a new type of ghost cities"
because of waves of foreclosures in overbuilt urban areas. Recovery will
be very slow, he said, because of fiscal restraint when stimulus is badly
needed.
-
- Instead of curing the patient, we're killing it because
giant banks control money, and government is colluding with them to wreck
Main Stream America to create assets they can buy cheap at the expense
of working households losing out. That's how private money power works
- for them against the common good. What more incentive is there for returning
it to public hands where it belongs, serving everyone equitably and fairly.
-
- Replicating a Workable Model
-
- One state alone has it, North Dakota establishing the
Bank of North Dakota (BND) in 1919. Access its web site at:
-
- http://www.banknd.nd.gov/
-
- In contrast to privatized banks, it's not insured by
the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) for good reason. Instead,
its deposits "are guaranteed by the full faith and credit of the State
of North Dakota," proved trustworthy after over 90 years of sound
money practices, unlike banks trapped by Fed control, wrecking many over
decades.
-
- Its deposit base is also unique, comprised mainly from
state residents and funds of state institutions. However, other deposits
are accepted from any private or public source. As mandated in 1919, North
Dakota's Industrial Commission oversees BND. Its members include the governor
as chairman, attorney general and commissioner of agriculture. The bank
also has a seven-member governor appointed advisory board, knowledgeable
in banking and finance.
-
- On December 8, 2010, Governor Jack Dalrymple's 2011 -
2013 Budget Address highlighted a performance record other states would
envy, struggling to cope with out-of-control deficits. In contrast, North
Dakota had surpluses throughout the economic crisis. As a result, it's
budgeting "unprecedented funding for transportation infrastructure,
housing, water supply and water control projects and other infrastructure
investments throughout the state."
-
- Greater funding will also go for K -12 and higher education,
economic development, agricultural research, health and human services,
as well as quality of life enhancements, public worker pay increases, besides
more for tax relief for state residents, amounting to $900 million in the
2011-2013 bienniums.
-
- Moreover, strong reserves will be grown and maintained.
Instead of cutting back like most other states, North Dakota is expanding
and passing on benefits to residents. In December 2010, it also had the
nation's lowest unemployment rate at 3.3%. BNB deserves the credit.
-
- On January 4, Dalrymple delivered his State of the State
Address, saying:
-
- "While other states (struggle with weak economies),
we in North Dakota are in a position of strength and can use our surplus
funds to meet the needs of the state" adequately, despite $174 million
less federal human services aid than last year.
-
- Nonetheless, North Dakota is prosperous. "You can
see it in the progress of our industries, our main streets, in our schools,
and in our overall economic growth. Our progress is getting national attention.
It's attracting people from other states and it's allowing (our) people
to stay close to home."
-
- North Dakota's impressive record includes:
-
- -- large budget surpluses;
-
- -- merchandise exports nearly doubled to $2 billion in
the last five years alone;
-
- -- 40,000 new jobs added in the last decade while the
nation lost them;
-
- -- the country's lowest unemployment rate at 3.3%; and
-
- -- much more revealing progress and prosperity, Dalrymple
saying he's "fortunate today to be able to say with complete confidence
that the state of our state is strong and growing stronger!" As a
result, more impressive things are planned because North Dakota has resources
to implement them, while other states cut back.
-
- On February 20, 2011 the Bismark Tribune reported:
-
- "North Dakota's economy has been (producing) black
gold, a $1 billion budget surplus, the nation's lowest unemployment,"
even though some residents need help. "It means there are still people,
and families, who face a variety of challenges." As a result, state
and local governments "have been proactive about" helping them
get benefits they need and deserve. The state has plenty of resources to
do it.
-
- An October 12, 2010 Before It's News headline said:
-
- "North Dakota Has A One Billion Dollar Budget Surplus
this year and is looking for ways to spend it - Maine has a billion-dollar
deficit and is looking for ways to fund it."
-
- Sub head: "North Dakota is the only state with a
surplus. It is also adding jobs when other states are losing them. Why
is this not headline news?"
-
- It's not only solvent, it's thriving with impressive
43% personal income growth besides 34% more in total wages.
-
- According to Brown, it's because BND has been a "credit
machine," for over 90 years, delivering "sound financial services
that promote agriculture, commerce and industry," something no other
state can match because they don't have state-owned banks.
-
- With one, BND "create(s) 'credit' with accounting
entries on (its) books" through fractional reserve banking that multiplies
each deposited amount magically about tenfold in the form of loans or computer-generated
funds. As a result, the bank can re-lend many times over, and the more
deposits, the greater amount of it for sustained, productive growth. If
all states owned public banks, they'd be as prosperous as North Dakota
and be able to rebate taxes and expand public services, not extract more
or cut them.
-
- Brown explains that the BND:
-
- "chiefly acts as a central bank, with functions
similar to those of a branch of the Federal Reserve," that's neither
federal or has reserves as it's owned by major private banks in each of
the 12 Fed districts, New York by far the most dominant with Wall Street's
majority control and a Fed chairman doing its bidding.
-
- In contrast, BND is a public bank, 100% owned by the
state, operating in the public interest and those of the state. It "avoids
rivalry with private banks by partnering with them." Local banks do
most lending. "The BND then comes in to participate in the loan, share
risk, buy down the interest rate and buy up loans, thereby freeing up banks
to lend more" as part of a continuing prosperity-creating virtuous
circle. One of its functions "is to provide a secondary market for
real estate loans, which it buys from local banks. Its residential loan
portfolio is now $500 to $600 billion" in a state with around 700,000
people and thriving.
-
- Its function in the property market helped it "avoid
the credit crisis that afflicted Wall Street when the secondary market
for loans collapsed in late 2007 and helped it reduce its foreclosure rate....(Its
other services) include guarantees for entrepreneurial startups and student
loans, the purchase of municipal bonds from public institutions, and a
well-funded disaster loan program." When the state didn't meet its
budget "a few years ago, the BND met the shortfall."
-
- Year after year it works, freeing North Dakota from today's
credit crisis and worst of the economic downturn. It's a win-win for the
state, its agriculture, commerce, industry, entrepreneurial startups, students,
homebuyers needing loans, and virtually anyone in the state able to qualify.
-
- In sum, state-owned banks have "enormous advantages
over smaller private institutions....Their asset bases are not marred by
oversized salaries and bonuses, they have no shareholders" demanding
high returns, and they don't speculate in derivatives or other high-risk
investments. As a result, BND is healthy with a 25% return on equity, paying
"a hefty dividend to the state projected at over $60 million in 2009"
and well over five times that amount in the last decade, so it begs the
question why other states don't operate the same way. With them, they might
be struggling the way nearly all of them are today, especially major ones
like California, New York, Michigan and Illinois.
-
- Growing State Interest in Public Banks
-
- On March 25, 2011, Ellen Brown's article headlined, "A
Choice for States: Banks, Not Budget Crises," highlighting the growing
interest in state-owned banks, including new initiatives exploring the
idea - at least 12 so far with pending bills or feasibility studies to
determine their potential. They include Oregon, Washington, Maryland, Illinois,
Virginia, Massachusetts, Louisiana, California, Arizona, Maine, Vermont
and Hawaii, considering public bank options like North Dakota, America's
most prosperous state with one.
-
- At issue is while "Wall Street is (thriving), local
banks are floundering, credit for small businesses and consumers remains
tight, and local governments are teetering on bankruptcy." Congress
is even considering new legislation to let states do it as a way to avoid
pension and other obligations. Yet, according to what's known, the Fed
gave giant banks $12.3 trillion dollars, providing nothing for strapped
states, local communities, and beleaguered households struggling to stay
afloat.
-
- North Dakota avoids economic hardships. So can other
states and communities with publicly owned banks. It's not rocket science.
It's simple. That's its beauty, and what works for North Dakota can work
anywhere. Size isn't the issue. Policy is.
-
- As a result, momentum's slowly building for change, in
Illinois, for example, on February 5, 2011 where Rep. Mary Flowers introduced
the Community Bank of Illinois Act. It:
-
- "Provides that the Department of Financial and Professional
Regulation shall operate the Community Bank of Illinois. Specifies the
authority of the advisory board of directors to the Bank. Provides that
the Secretary is to employ a president and employees. Contains provisions
concerning the removal and discharge of appointees. Provides that State
funds must be deposited in the Bank. Contains provisions concerning the
nonliability of officers and sureties after deposit. Specifies the powers
of the Bank."
-
- "Contains provisions concerning the guaranty of
deposits and the Bank's role as a clearinghouse, the authorization of loans
(to) the General Revenue Fund, bank loans to farmers, limitations on the
loans by the Bank, the name in which business is conducted and titles taken,
civil actions, surety on appeal, audits, electronic fund transfer systems,
confidentiality of bank records, the sale and leasing of acquired agricultural
real estate, and the illinois higher education savings plan."
-
- "Provides that the Bank is the custodian of securities.
Amends the Illinois State Auditing Act to require that the Auditor General
must contract with an independent certified accounting firm for an annual
audit of the Community Bank of Illinois as provided in the Community Bank
of Illinois Act. Amends the Eminent Domain Act to allow the Bank to acquire
property by eminent domain."
-
- In California, on February 17, 2011, Assembly Member
Ben Hueso introduced AB 750 (as amended March 31, 2011), "Finance:
investment trust blue ribbon task force."
-
- Besides other provisions:
-
- "This bill would establish the investment blue ribbon
task force to consider the viability of establishing the California Investment
Trust, which would be a state bank receiving deposits of all state funds.
The trust would support economic development, provide financing for housing
development, public works and educational infrastructure, provide stability
to the financial sector, provide state government banking services, lend
capital to specified financial institutions, and provide for excess earnings
of the trust to be used for state General Fund purposes."
-
- "The bill would establish the membership of the
task force, which would include designated Members of the Legislature and
designees of the Governor, Controller, and Treasurer....The bill would
require the task force to report to the Legislature by December 1, 2012,
on its findings and recommendations to the viability of establishing the
California Investment Trust" and state-owned bank.
-
- Candidates in last fall's November elections also proposed
state banks in California, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Vermont, and Michigan,
though legislation for them hasn't passed.
-
- In 2010, Michigan's bill got the most coverage. An initiative
for it can be accessed through the following link:
-
- http://jobs4michigan.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2&Itemid=3
-
- It calls a State of Michigan Development Bank an instrument
to "provide credit worthy (state) Businesses loans and lines of credit
on fair terms to protect and expand existing businesses and jobs, to attract
new high technology and manufacturing businesses to Michigan, to put Michigan's
skilled workforce to work, and provide needed credit for Michigan farm
businesses and the important tourism industry."
-
- It proposed using some of the $58 billion from four Michigan
pension funds as initial seed capital to launch it to help local businesses
and create jobs. So far the measure stalled without a legislative majority
to pass it.
-
- In the 19th century, Louisiana once had a state bank
but liquidated it in 1908. Louisiana State Bank Records show the legislature
created the Louisiana State Bank in March 1818 after the charter of the
Louisiana Bank neared expiration.
-
- At the time, the bank was endowed with $2 million in
seed capital. Funded with $100,000, each of five branches operated autonomously.
Besides providing capital for state agriculture, the bank also participated
in financing the railroad industry in the mid-1800s.
-
- It operated during Louisiana's unprecedented growth period,
with state imports and exports rivaling most other states. In 1871, it
became the State National Bank, then unfortunately liquidated 11 years
before North Dakota's BND was established. Perhaps its reemergence lies
ahead.
-
- Brown explains that today's budget crisis affecting nearly
all states didn't "arise from too much spending or too little taxation."
A Wall Street created credit freeze caused them, easily avoided with a
state bank like North Dakota's, a prosperous oasis during the worst economic
crunch since the Great Depression.
-
- The Public Banking Institute: Banking in the Public Interest
-
- Ellen Brown heads the initiative to promote an idea whose
time has come, explaining that public banks are:
-
- -- viable economic solutions to promote sustainable growth
and prosperity;
-
- -- available to states, cities and local communities
of any size;
-
- -- owned and operated by states or local communities,
not private investors, scamming the system for profit at the public's expense;
-
- -- economically viable like private banks, but more stable
and secure;
-
- -- "able to offset tax increases with returned credit
income to" communities;
-
- -- ready resources for state and local governments, "eliminating
the need for large 'rainy day' funds," sitting dormant unused;
-
- -- help for local businesses, farmers, working households
and students, not casinos to speculate recklessly like private banks; and
-
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