Economic Democracy or Corporate Hegemony
Solutions to Economic Crisis: Public Banking and Community Organizing
Objectives
To look at local initiatives creating new economic models and systems.
Paradigms
The narrative from Wall Street and academia is that our privately run economy works for the betterment of everyone and that public control of our money supply will ruin it. The reality is that public control of the money supply and other economic models would provide a happier and more sustainable future.
Context
The current movement to create public banks to recapture the monetary system for the common good began with the publication of Ellen Brown’s book Web of Debt in 1994. Following the financial crisis in 2008, interest in public banking exploded as people sought an alternative to our private banking system.
In the 2008 crisis, private banking ruined our monetary system, leaving millions of people both homeless and unemployed. Interest in public banking as an alternative led to the establishment of the Public Banking Institute in 2010. In the spring of 2014, Justice Rising collaborated with the Public Banking Institute to produce Public Banking: Creating Jobs, Building Communities and Reclaiming the Commons, the reading material for this class. Now there are 21 states with initiatives to start a public bank in their state or community.
Public Banking Institute
The Public Banking Institute (PBI) was formed in January 2011 to spread awareness of the transformative power of public banking and to support efforts to create public banks at every level of government. Their mission is to inspire, enable, and support Public Bank initiatives across the country, returning control of money and credit to states and communities. Their vision is that a network of publicly-owned banks will be established that create affordable credit and allow communities to declare independence from Wall Street’s high-risk, expensive, unaccountable private banking system. Their goal is to establish a
safe, affordable, community-driven alternative to the costly and
dangerous financial system controlled by Wall Street. They have
active campaigns in nineteen states
The Federal Public Banking Act
Representatives Rashida Tlaib and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez revived The Public Banking Act federal legislation by reintroducing it December 13, 2023.
The Public Banking Act of 2023 would:
provides liquidity to public member banks;
California Public Banking Alliance
The California Public Banking Alliance (CPBA) is a coalition of public banking activists in California founded in 2018 to create socially and environmentally responsible city and regional public banks. Public banking advocates from Los Angeles to Eureka, worked together to write and pass AB 857, the California Public Banking Act, in 2019. This legislation made California the first state in the nation to authorize the chartering of municipal public banks. � Since the passage of AB 857, multiple communities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Central Coast, and the East Bay, have passed legislation to move forward with implementing public banks in their localities. We have the
opportunity now to build a new alternative banking system through
locally-controlled socially and environmentally responsible public
banks, enabling cities and counties to recapture public dollars and
have a say over the financing of our own communities.
There is also a movement to create US Postal Banks using the US Postal Service. In the past the Postal Service has offered a variety of banking services including savings accounts to underserved Americans. There is a movement to re-establish those services supported by a wide variety of groups. For more information go to http://www.campaignforpostalbanking.org/
There are many other groups working to set up alternative economic models. One of them is Transition Town, a global movement that is looking at ways to reinvent local economies by organizing locally. It “is a vibrant, grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change, and the economic crisis. It represents one of the most promising ways to engage people in strengthening their communities against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more abundant, fulfilling, equitable, and socially connected.” Started in England by Rob Hopkins, it now has over 160 official affiliates in the US and numerous unofficial affiliates.
Economic localization is another global movement to create an economy for the common good. The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE) https://bealocalist.org/ has been on the forefront of the localization movement for the past two decades. The localization movement often focuses on building a local food movement and is responsible for the proliferation of farmers markets around the world, many farm-to-school and farm-to-table programs, and community-supported agriculture. A slow money movement has developed to help finance this change. Class 4 Part Three on Food and Health will concentrate on local food.
What Can We Do?
Homework
Additional Readings and Viewings