The Fed claims that quantitative easing has helped create or save almost 2,000,000 jobs since 2008, and while that may be true, the people could probably find a much better way to spend $40 billion a month and create and save far more jobs.
What will happen the next time the largest banks in America gamble their way into chaos? Will taxpayers bail them out again or will the "stakeholders" be forced to make up the losses?
One pathway to genuine reform is "public banking": the establishment of banks which are owned and operated by the government, and which serve people and small businesses directly. Here's why public banking should be included in the agenda for deep and genuine financial reform.
Many homeowners were strained by mortgages that were underwater prior to the storm, and their properties have now depreciated to the point of having no market value at all. They have no choice but to try to rebuild, but how can they take on more debt?
A public bank for Illinois would deliver that much needed cheap and easily accessible capital for credit-worthy borrowers that would make a world of difference for us and our neighbors.
We have forgotten our roots, when the American colonists thrived on a system of money created by the people themselves, debt-free and interest-free. The continued dominance of the Wall Street money machine depends on that collective amnesia.
I would encourage the Occupy movement to adopt a new plank in the platform -- a new bank. De-bank and re-bank! Let's find the "radical" economists and entrepreneurs who can help make the success story of the state bank available to us all.
The time has come for an intelligent, independently-governed, public infrastructure bank, ideally partnering with real banks that see their public purpose as a profession, focused on productive lending in the real economy.
The Fed's second round of "quantitative easing" involved $600 billion for the purchase of long-term government bonds. But the government never actually got the money; it went straight into the reserve accounts of foreign banks.
California is the eighth largest economy in the world, and it has a debt burden to match. As large as California's liabilities are, they are exceeded by its assets. That makes Assembly Bill 750 particularly significant.
The budget woes of Wisconsin and other states were not caused by overspending on employee benefits. The "cure" is to get credit flowing again in the local economy, and this can be done by using state assets to capitalize state-owned banks.
Responding to an unfilled need for credit, three states in the last month -- Oregon, Washington and Maryland -- have introduced bills for state-owned banks.
Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate of the Washington State Legislature that add Washington to the growing number of states actively moving to create public banking facilities.
Congress has just gone through 10 days of reflection and grief over the tragedy in Tucson. Will we see civil discourse take place this week in Congress?
The Bank of North Dakota has garnered attention for its continued profitability. Momentum is building for a sane kind of banking system that works for the people and state instead of the bottom line of banks and shareholders.
For two years, politicians have danced around the nationalization issue, but ForeclosureGate may be the last straw. The megabanks are too big to fail...
If the big banks that brought you the current credit crisis can already meet the new requirements, what exactly does Basel III achieve, beyond shaking down their smaller competitors?
Wall Street banks have been saved from bankruptcy by governments that are now going bankrupt themselves; but the banks are not returning the favor. Wall Street needs to be made to pay its fair share, but how?
Michigan, which has an unemployment rate of 14 percent, has been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. Virg Bernero, mayor of Lansing, the s...