| Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, throws its weight behind public bankingThe Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted April 23 to throw its support behind California’s Assembly Bill 857, which would help enable cities to form their own public banks, and to explore the legality of creating a public bank for the county. The influential county joins the rapidly growing list of municipalities across the state supporting the landmark bill. Nadia Lopez in the San Jose Spotlight quotes Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who said, “I think we have an opportunity for being able to use public dollars better and also comport ourselves more as a public benefit corporation.” She added that frustrating challenges with banks such as Wells Fargo and growing national attention on the prospect of a public bank system both contributed to her support. [read more] |
| SF Examiner OpEd: Public banks are good for the planetIn a guest column in the San Francisco Examiner on Earth Day, April 24, Robyn Purchia took the opportunity to explain why San Francisco should use every tool at its disposal, including public banks, in its efforts to radically change the culture that has brought us to the current state of climate emergency. Purchia writes: “[A] public bank could serve people and the environment better than traditional, profit-motivated financial institutions. It could enable developers to build more affordable housing near jobs, which can also reduce traffic, air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and suburban sprawl. It could fund more solar panels and green infrastructure projects, which would create more jobs.” [read more] |
| Video spotlight in tribute to Bernard Lietaer, who passed away February 4Bernard A. Lietaer was a former Belgian central banker, a Research Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, and an international expert in the design and implementation of currency systems. He unfortunately passed away in February, but his videos on YouTube are revolutionary and worth tracking down. In this eye-opening video, he exposes the disturbing real mission of central bankers. He reveals:“The reason I left the Central Bank was a conversation I had with the Secretary General of the Bank of International Settlements. … They told me, literally, … ‘We exist, the central banks exist, the IMF, the world bank exists only for one purpose: to keep the system going as it is, not to improve it. It is the lobby for the status quo. It was created in the 19th century because the deal that the banking system got was the best they ever could get, so [they] create[d] an institutional framework that freezes that reality forever. [They are] an active lobby that no one sees as a lobby.” [watch the video] |