By Robert Raymond, Shareable. Ellen Brown discusses the public banking solution, with a nod to the California Public Banking Alliance and our grassroots movement working to radically transform the banking system in the U.S.

Since the 2008 financial collapse, people across the country have been exploring new ways of democratizing the economy. How could the disaster inflicted by Wall Street be utilized as an opportunity to create new and improved institutions? From worker cooperatives to land trusts to participatory budgeting, democratic models of traditional institutions began to take shape.

Public banking is one alternative model, and the grassroots movement that has formed around it intends to radically reimagine the banking system in the United States. Working with legislators across the US, advocates are pushing for the creation of public banks on the municipal, county and state levels.

The modern movement for public banking was spearheaded by Ellen Brown of the Public Banking Institute just after the 2008 financial collapse. Brown has since authored several books, including most recently “Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age,” published by The Democracy Collaborative. Shareable spoke with Brown about how public banking is a solution to the extractive and exploitative Wall Street model.

Continue reading on Shareable.

In These Times authors Thomas M. Hanna and Adam Simpson gives the California Public Banking Alliance a nod! “Whatever the bill’s ultimate fate, the campaign that the California Public Banking Alliance has put together is truly remarkable. More than 100 organizations representing 3.3 million Californians have endorsed the bill. These include labor unions (such as the California Nurses Association, SEIU California, AFSCME California and UFCW Western States Council), community groups (such as People Organizing To Demand Environmental and Economic Rights and Healthcare for All- California), environmental groups (such as 350.org, Friends of the Earth and the Local Clean Energy Alliance) and political organizations (such as the California Democratic Party and the Green Party of California). Moreover, 10 city governments have backed the effort, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Diego.”

Continue reading on In These Times.

By Robert R. Raymond, Truthout. It may not come as a surprise to hear that the majority of Americans don’t trust the banking system in this country. Only 27 percent of those surveyed in a 2016 Gallup poll said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in the institution — less than half of the record high set in 1979. And the lack of trust is spread relatively evenly across the political spectrum — it’s not just liberals or those on the left: Almost everyone is fed up with the banks.

And if banking institutions don’t exactly spark joy, their lead characters — morally bankrupt investment bankers whose greed and arrogance almost singlehandedly collapsed the entire country’s economy — certainly don’t spark joy either. It’s an old story: Bankers made obscene amounts of money destroying the economy, we bailed them out, they walked away from it all without a shred of accountability and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. But that’s not where the story has to end. Spurred by the need for an alternative to the for-profit, extractive model of finance exemplified by Wall Street, there is a budding movement in the United States that is working to reimagine banking as an institution that truly serves the public.

Public banking is an old idea, but it has never been very common in the United States. The first and only public bank in the country was founded exactly 100 years ago in North Dakota, and it wasn’t until relatively recently that the idea has begun to find new life in cities and states across the country. Growing largely out of the need for more democratic ownership over capital, the aim of this budding movement is to create a robust public banking infrastructure across the nation that is rooted in the principles of economic, environmental, racial and social justice.

Continue reading on Truthout.

By Chase DiFeliciantonio, North Bay Business Journal. A bill that would allow some municipalities to establish their own banks in California edged through a state committee Wednesday.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 857, passed the Senate Governance and Finance Committee on a 4-3 vote with the support of Chairman Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg.

Authored by Assemblymen David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and Miguel Santiago, D-Los Angeles, the bill would allow local governments of a certain size to create publicly owned banks with the goal of divesting from large banks invested in the fossil fuel industry, private prisons, and other industries while investing local tax money back into communities.

Municipalities could also band together to create joint powers authorities under the bill.

Continue reading on North Bay Business Journal.

Nomi Prins leads a panel discussion on big banking featuring Sean Stone, Trinity Tran (California Public Banking  Alliance and Public Bank LA), and David Dayen.

Watch on The Young Turks.

North Bay Business Journal talks with California Public Banking Alliance members Chris Petlock, Shelly Browning and Susan Harman.

Should banks exist to make a profit, a difference, or both?

A bill in the California Legislature allowing municipalities to create their own banks could upend how they handle their money and finance long-term projects. It also has the potential to squeeze out larger financial institutions, replacing them with these so-called “public banks.”

The legislation, Assembly Bill 857, could also have a resounding impact on the North Bay.

Cities and counties could combine to found a bank that would replace larger institutions in underwriting “participation loans” made to projects in partnership with local banks and credit unions, according to Susan Harman of the Public Bank East Bay advocacy group, part of the statewide California Public Bank Alliance.

“We would replace Wall Street banks, offer local rates and the money would stay local,” Harman said. “The public bank would buy that loan essentially, back it, and provide the capital that the credit union or community bank would need.”

There are different visions for how public banks could work and how many municipalities would be involved in one. In the North Bay, some advocates envision a wide-ranging conglomeration of cities and counties participating in the bank.

Under the bill, municipalities could band together to create joint powers authorities, or JPAs, to increase their size and improve the chance of loan profitability.

Continue reading on North Bay Business Journal.

Beverly Press. The Public Banking Act, AB 857, passed its first hurdle in the California Senate on June 19. The measure passed through the Senate Banking Committee and now heads to the Senate Governance and Finance Committee.

Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) said AB 857 has the broad support from labor unions, environmental groups, grassroots activists and municipalities throughout the state, though it’s up against heavy opposition from Wall Street banks.

“Wall Street bankers hate the idea of a public bank because it takes power away from them and gives it back to the people,” Santiago said. “AB 857 gives us the option to invest public dollars for the public good, and I say it’s high time we prioritized the people of California over the profits of billionaire investors.”

Assemblyman David Chiu (D-San Francisco) said the state is “standing up to say the public’s money should be used for the public good.”

Continue reading on Beverly Press.

By Tom Gogola, Pacific Sun. There’s an effort afoot in Sacramento for public banking that’s putting the focus on how localities manage their investment portfolios. A bill that’s currently parked in a Senate committee chaired by North Bay legislator Mike McGuire would, for the first time, allow municipalities or regions to create commercial banks that would function in much the same way as Wall Street banks like JP Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo.

Assembly Bill 857, authored by Assemblymen David Chiu and Miguel Santiago, sets out to create a regulatory framework to allow California to license public banks that would give cities the option to stop doing business with big banks and invest taxpayer money into local communities.

“We don’t have control over our own money supply,” says North Bay public banking activist Shelly Browning, who’s a longtime public bank activist. Her road to advocacy for public banking leads from Egypt’s Freedom Square protests, to the domestic Occupy movement, to the spring-off Occupy effort to get public banks in the public consciousness.

Continue reading on Pacific Sun.

By Scott Soriano, Capitol Weekly. The concept of public banking in California is making a comeback.

By law, currently California cities and counties typically have one place to deposit the funds they collect from taxes, fees and fines: private commercial banks. Billions of dollars of public money are handled by commercial banks — for a fee.

Despite having billions of dollars banked, municipalities have no say in how their money is used by commercial banks. Bank management, owners and stockholders set policy.

But public banking advocates say that because commercial banks are loyal to their shareholders, that policy reflects the shareholders’ desire for high profit, not the interests of the community whose money they bank.

Last month, the Assembly on a bare majority vote approved AB 857, by Assembly Democrats Miguel Santiago of Los Angeles and David Chiu of San Francisco. The measure amends existing banking law to allow California municipalities to establish their own public banks. The bill was sent to the Senate, where the Banking & Financial Institutions Committee approved last week and sent to it to Governance and Finance.

Continue reading on Capitol Weekly.