How public banking is winning the West
http://www.occupy.com/article/how-public-banking-winning-west
This is what the economic justice movement looks like on the inside. A new economy requires financing, and that financing needs to be managed democratically. Public banks are the way we do that.
Public banks are run by local or state governments, without shareholders, with a mandate to support local community banks and fund public goods like schools, city services and small businesses. Wall Street hates public banks because they demonstrate that local governments and communities can manage their money and finance their services without making massive interest payments to big banks.
Currently, there’s only one public bank in the United States, in North Dakota, but there are movements in over 20 states to create more. This story is about movements in four Western states where, because of persistent organizing, meetings, conversations, and a belief that democracy must be materialized, people like you and me have made impressive strides in the campaign to bring public banks to the United States....
The state of Washington has been home to a public banking movement for a while now, with members of the Washington Public Bank Coalition finding a longtime ally in State Sen. Bob Hasegawa. The empowerment in Seattle of one of the country’s most progressive city councils may be decisive in tipping the scales for the public banking movement. The Seattle City Council’s adoption last year of a strong and uncompromising minimum wage ordinance – combined with a city budget that is revolutionary in its scope of social investment and commitment to economic empowerment and community revitalization – makes a publicly-owned financial institution especially appropriate for the city. A series of meetings on public banking took place in Seattle in December, featuring the state coalition, the Public Banking Institute, and several organizations from Seattle and throughout Washington.
