Los Angeles to vote on breakthrough: own the bank

[Auggie]

The term “public bank” may confuse some into thinking that Los Angeles is about to create a bunch of branch offices where residents can open a free checking account. The idea is much more ambitious. Public bank enthusiasts want to finance local improvements in housing, infrastructure, and community development by employing the money citizens already pay to state and local governments for services. To them, it’s about democratizing the financial system.

The public has yet to be brought in on this idea, until now at least. The Los Angeles vote represents the first popular referendum on public banking since the financial crisis brought the public bank idea back into the conversation. For the vote to go their way, activists will have to demystify a technical financial concept, and answer charges from critics that a city-owned bank will prove too risky and too costly for taxpayers.

The activists say they’re ready for the challenge. “Until now, activists have been fighting in the ivory towers of legislatures, and off the radar of the populace, even though it’s in their best interest,” said Phoenix Goodman, an organizer with Public Bank LA. “We have the opportunity to bring this down to the grassroots, where it belongs.”

Full story: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/public-bank-los-angeles_us_5b6bef33e4b0ae32af954495

Own the power companies too! Interent service providers. Profiteering is choking us.

[DBoon]

1. Los Angeles already has a publicly owned water and power system

kept us from getting screwed over when Enron was sucking the life out of California

[Auggie]

4. I'm thinking the rest of California

[kimbutgar]

2. I would love for California to open a bank so marijuana stores can deposit their money and loans

Could be made in the communities for infrastructure.

[roamer65]

3. Would be smart on CA's part.

Eventually it may have to become the Central Bank of California.

[Hortensis]

5. A good manipulator can get anything passed by

referendum. One famous California Republican who served big business boasted of it, and he was right.

Generally speaking, I don't trust this at all. Local people getting control of tax dollars sounds good, but local governments are also where the highest rates of corruption and gross negligence and incompetence.are found. Many small town governments are far more and incestuous conservative than regulating governments. When they are awarded state and federal money, that money comes with very details stipulations, regulations, and oversight for good reasons that these vast sums would skate around.

What on earth could go wrong?

If people don't like how their money is spent, they need to get off their lazy asses and study political records and issues and then get those asses to the polls, not spln off vast amounts of power and money to inadequately regulated and scrutinized referendum "lottery winners."

[stuffmatters]

6. North Dakota State Bank has protected (esp in 2008)and supported its citizens/ economy for decades.

Ellen Brown @ Naked Capitalism has done excellent writing on state banks for years. She ran for Ca State Treasurer on this platform in 2014, but got little attention. That it's on the ballot in LA seems a big step towards mainstreaming this idea in Ca & making it someday a reality.
I like the ideas around US Post Office banking too.

[FreeState]

7. But it only has one branch without the full range of services

Other entities may also open accounts at the Bank; however, BND offers fewer retail services than other institutions, and it has only one office. These limit its competitiveness in consumer banking.[4] The bank does have an account with the Federal Reserve Bank, but deposits are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, instead being guaranteed by the general fund of the state of North Dakota itself and the taxpayers of the state.[4] BND also guarantees student loans (through its Student Loans of North Dakota division), business development loans, and state and municipal bonds.[4]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_Dakota

Sounds like it could easily be transformed into what they are aiming for in LA though.

[stuffmatters]

8. TY for the specifics,FS.

A benefit oft repeated & that first impressed me re: the ND SB is that ND suffered the least of all states in 2008 much because the State Bank was not Wall Street controlled. Also I was initially surprised that ND of all states was the place that had a state bank.

I think probably the process for setting up a State Bank in Ca is going to be a long struggle bkz obviously Wall Street has no desire
to let the world's 6th largest economy bank its own money and investments without their profit or control. But With ND already operating the skeletal model, with such long,satisfying success, ND offers a compelling precedent against what will be a "chicken little" campaigns of untold billions spent to stop it at every juncture.