Open thread for night owls: Los Angeles voters will decide Nov. 6 whether to start a city-owned bank
Ellen Brown at Yes! magazine writes—In a push to divest public funds from corporate giants, Los Angeles is asking voters to approve a city-owned bank:
[...] Local governments have been in bondage to Wall Street since the 19th century, despite multiple efforts to rein them in. Regulation has not worked. To break free, we need to divest our public funds from these banks and move them into our own publicly owned banks.
Some cities and states have already moved forward with feasibility studies and business plans for forming their own banks. But Los Angeles faces a barrier to entry that other cities don’t have. In 1913, the same year the Federal Reserve was formed to backstop the private banking industry, the city amended its charter to state that it had all the powers of a municipal corporation, “with the provision added that the city shall not engage in any purely commercial or industrial enterprise not now engaged in, except on the approval of the majority of electors voting thereon at an election.”
Under this provision, voter approval would apparently not be necessary for a city-owned bank that limited itself to taking the city’s deposits and refinancing municipal bonds as they came due, because that sort of bank would not be a “purely commercial or industrial enterprise” but would simply be a public utility that made more efficient use of public funds. But voter approval would evidently be required to allow the city to explore how public banks can benefit local economic development, rather than just finance public projects.
The L.A. City Council could have relied on this 1913 charter amendment to say “no” to the dynamic local movement led by millennial activists to divest from Wall Street and create a city-owned bank. But the City Council chose instead to jump that hurdle by putting the matter to the voters. In July 2018, it put Charter Amendment B on the November ballot.
A “yes” vote would allow the creation of a city-owned bank that can partner with local banks to provide low-cost credit for the community, following the stellar precedent of the century-old Bank of North Dakota, the nation’s only state-owned bank. By cutting out Wall Street middlemen, the Bank of North Dakota has been able to make below-market credit available to local businesses, farmers, and students while still being more profitable than some of Wall Street’s largest banks. Following that model would have substantial upside for both the small business and the local banking communities in Los Angeles. [...]
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“But in any case, validity, offender self-reports have dubious validity, especially when the offender's self-interest is at stake. The only rule for deception in sex offenders I have ever found is this: If it is in the offender's best interests to lie, and if he can do it and not get caught, he will lie.“ ~~Anna C. Salter, Predators: Pedophiles, Rapists, And Other Sex Offenders (2003)
xTHIS is how bystanders are supposed to intervene when they see racial harassment happening.Madison had time today 🤣 pic.twitter.com/TMCkA2PmG5
— Last House Andray Left (@andraydomise) October 3, 2018On this date at Daily Kos in 2002—Homeland security bill stalled:
House Republicans are threatening to stay in session in order to pressure Senate Democrats to compromise on the Homeland Security bill. Dems are insisting on union protection for the proposed agency's employees, while the GOP hates unions.
However, if no bill ever passes, that would not be a bad thing. All the new agency does is shuffle a multitude of far-flung government agencies into a brand new bureaucracy. And, those agencies most tasked with "homeland security" issues -- the FBI and intelligence agencies -- are not even included.
The whole Homeland Security agency idea had its genesis in the post-9-11 hysteria, and was driven hard by Democrats eager to show their "security" bona fides. While balking at first, the White House caved in to deflect attention from the whole "Bush knew" frenzy. In both cases, support for the agency hasn't been borne of actual security concerns, but political opportunism. This whole idea stinks.
LINK TO DAILY KOS STORE On today’s Kagro in the Morning show: Greg Dworkin and Joan McCarter take in today's Big Story Overload. Kavanaugh's records retention continues to make things worse. NYT at last ready to declare Trump a fraud, after 70+ years in NYC together. Emoluments cases clear standing hurdles. x Embedded ContentRadioPublic|LibSyn|YouTube|Patreon|Square Cash (Share code: Send $5, get $5!)
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