Banking - Building a Public Option - 27:22

2012 – We’re Overdue for a Public Banking System
With
Timothy A. Canova,
Betty Hutton Williams Prof. of International Economic Law
Chapman University School of Law

The federal government’s response to the financial crisis has been
a parade of bailout programs injecting public funds into the largest
banks and financial institutions, with precious little assistance for
everyone else. As in the 1930s, Depression failure to achieve a
strong and sustainable recovery should open the door to other
alternatives such as parallel public banking institutions, at both the
federal and state levels, to fill the unmet credit needs stemming
from the massive failures in private banking. In banks owned by
federal and state governments, there is far greater public
accountability in the bank’s oversight, direction, and lending
practices than in private institutions. This so-called “public option”
in banking has a rich tradition in American history which can serve
as models today including the 30's Reconstruction Finance Corp.
at the Federal level and the Bank of North Dakota which has been
successfully operating since the 1930’s and is the model for a number
of attempts today at the state level including California to duplicate its
success
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Plus "The Socialist Bank of North Dakota"
with
Dr. Rozanne Everson Junker, political scientist

North Dakota has long had a state bank which unlike private banks
has faithfully served the people and the state in good times and bad.
We've talked about a public option for health care, but why not for
banks? Thanks to Michael Moore for this case study.

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