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Base public bank discussion on facts
MY VIEW – Peter Smith Santa Fe New Mexican | August 13, 2022 Let’s have a fact-based discussion about a public bank for New Mexico. What do we call it when a person who knows the facts of a specific situation fails to state them fairly and accurately, and tries...
AFLEP Presents to NM Legislative Interim Committee
On Monday, August 8, 2022 in Gallup NM, AFLEP presented to the Economic Development & Policy Committee (EDPC), an Interim Committee of the New Mexico State Legislature. The EDPC is made up of both Senators and Representatives. AFLEP was represented by Harold...
State Employees Credit Union, former CEO Harold Dixon talks about why he sees a need for a public bank in New Mexico
May 28, 2022 – Retake Our Democracy's Paul Gibson explores public banking mis-information with Harold, and some key ways a public bank can improve New Mexico's economy – like expanding the lending capacity of community banks and credit unions, reducing State bond...
Hear Us: Public Banking for Racial Justice
June 8, 2022 | Next City Op-Ed, by Lebaron Sims – More than a decade after the Great Recession, America is again experiencing a supply-side recovery. Whether via the $700 billion bailout of 2008 or the unchecked exponential growth of 2022, commercial banks and financial corporations eat first – while most Americans, especially the working-class Black and Brown communities most affected by crisis, struggle without support. Then and now, that contrast is particularly sharp in New York City, a global center of finance, the home of countless banks, and an early epicenter of the pandemic. Members of Public Bank NYC (PBNYC), a coalition of organizations and other stakeholders committed to financial justice in New York City, had another vision, rooted in racial equity and environmental justice.
REPORT: Public Banking Key to Building Community Wealth in New York City
May 26, 2022 | DEMOS – Wall Street has a long history of putting profits over people. The big banks perpetuate structural racism in housing, labor, and climate. Instead of serving the public good, they prioritize shareholder returns over the needs of people and communities. A public bank in New York City would help combat the racist and extractive banking system and build community wealth. Each year, the City of New York moves tens of billions of public dollars through Wall Street banks—the same banks that persistently redline NYC’s neighborhoods of color, that finance private prisons, fossil fuel extraction, and other destructive industries.
Wells Fargo Rejected Half Its Black Applicants in Mortgage Refinancing Boom
March 10, 2022 | by Shawn Donnan, Ann Choi, Hannah Levitt and Christopher Cannon
When Mauise Ricard III paid a $560.43 application fee to Wells Fargo & Co. on Valentine’s Day in 2020 to refinance his mortgage on a four-bedroom brick colonial in a leafy suburb of Atlanta, he had every reason to expect an easy ride. The Microsoft Corp. engineer is married to a doctor and has a credit score north of 800, putting him in America’s credit elite. The loan officer at the bank even told him he was probably eligible for a fast-track appraisal.
Could Massachusetts get into the banking business? Maybe.
April 27, 2022 | by Jon Chesto – A bid to create a state-owned bank to help finance business growth is gaining momentum on Beacon Hill, with key decision likely this week. Launching a state-owned bank was once considered a fringe idea — even here, in left-leaning Massachusetts. Not anymore. As the chairs of the Legislature’s financial services committee decide this week whether to endorse the proposal, it will be hard to ignore the momentum of the past year. A public bank topped the legislative agenda at the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts, and a group of mayors in Greater Boston came out in favor.
How Philadelphia is laying the groundwork for a public bank
March 22, 2022 | by Allissa Kline – In the latest step forward for a nationwide movement that has been gaining steam, the Philadelphia City Council voted on March 3 to establish a public financial authority — a move that supporters see as a precursor to chartering a public bank that would eventually serve as a depository for municipal funds. “The city has limited resources to replace the missing wealth of Black and Brown family members and friends, but it can substitute for its effect by guaranteeing loans and providing other credit enhancement products,” Philadelphia Councilmember Derek Green wrote in a recent op-ed.
Opening Public Banks in California – National Town Hall
Opening Public Banks in California – National Town Hall
Part victory lap and part planning session for the work ahead of them, the California Public Banking Alliance’s March 30th Town Hall, The Nuts & Bolts of Opening Public Banks in California, offered valuable insights into how to win legislative approval for a Public Bank – and how to articulate the economic development benefits.
Keynote: Eric Hardmeyer, retired CEO of Bank of North Dakota
Keynote: Eric Hardmeyer, retired CEO of Bank of North Dakota
CA Public Banking Alliance’s March 30th Town Hall – Opening Public Banks in California
Eric Hardmeyer, CEO for 21 years, detailed the aspects of the Bank of North Dakota he considers responsible for its endurance and its success. To emphasize its role as a banker’s bank, he cited one of its original commitments: “To assist in the development of financial institutions and public corporations within the state.” As a result, BND has been a force to stabilize regional and community banking, saying that in the Crash of 2008, “we had no bank defaults in North Dakota. Zero!”
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Episode: Everyone deserves a public bank
“I had the good fortune to work on this initiative before Bernie kidnapped all my time. This is one of those no-brainer initiatives that only the 1% could oppose. It has the potential to save the state millions of dollars by vastly reducing the cost of its bonds to improve infrastructure funding. in a public bank, our state funds can be used to build our local economy and our local infrastructure.”
– Paul Gibson
Retake Our Democracy