Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
greatdemocracyinitiative.org
Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
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Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#2Is there a place in the US, outside maybe some really rural areas, where a credit union isn't available that doesn't offer accounts to the general population? In my experience credit unions' checking accounts are free.
(I realize that this proposal is something slightly different, but I wanted to preempt the inevitable "poor are unbanked because of fees" claims.)
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#3Commercial banking, together with the Intellectual Property system, is one of the greatest Rentier swindles of all time. We are literally renting the money we use, for extortionate prices [1].
"The dollar as a reserve currency transfers wealth from the rest of world to the USA
One final way in which money works today that has a substantial effect on the workings of the global political economy is the use of the US dollar as the international reserve currency. This follows the decision of the OPEC countries shortly after the end of the Second World War to accept only dollars for their oil. Today, the dollar is used for trade in many other commodities.
This acts as a huge subsidy to the US economy, since countries elsewhere in the world sell goods and services to the US, but instead of buying back from US companies, they keep the dollars so as to be able to trade among themselves — as well as to be able to protect their currencies from speculative attack. This effective transfer of wealth from the rest of the world to the US permits the US to be easily the world’s largest debtor nation, while driving the unprecedented widening of wealth disparity within the global community (Douthwaite, 1999)." [2]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzCegQVljdY
[2] https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/impacts-of-our-curre...
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#4This is an interesting proposal.
Private banks have two very important functions in society: they provide the infrastructure for the payment system and they control credit.
This proposal would disentangle those functions making, I think, a more robust financial infrastructure.
The payment system is, by its characteristics, a natural monopoly, and it's so important that makes sense that it become public. If that was the case, the main function of private banks would be to control the issue of credit.
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#5Commercial banking, together with the Intellectual Property system, is one of the greatest Rentier swindles of all time. We are literally renting the money we use, for extortionate prices [1]. "The dollar as a reserve currency transfers wealth from the rest of world to the USA One final way in which money works today that has a substantial effect on the workings of the global political economy is the use of the US do…
The USA is not, in percentage of their economy, the largest debtor nation. The dollar have a special status, because of the importance (economic and geopolitic) of the USA, but that's not what explain the untroubled existence of a big public debt.
If that theory was true how they explain Japan?
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#6this seems like the wrong direction. I'd prefer to get rid of the Fed. No reason for the Federal Govt to borrow money it can print itself. Opening up what it means to be a bank makes sense though.
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#7This is interesting in the context of this recent article on Zerohedge: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/loretta-mester-hints-fed-p...
In short, three Fed officials (two former, and the current President/CEO of Fed Bank of Cleveland) are speculating on a product like this. Most interesting is the idea of directly sending cash payments to individual citizens using this product.
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#8This is an interesting proposal. Private banks have two very important functions in society: they provide the infrastructure for the payment system and they control credit. This proposal would disentangle those functions making, I think, a more robust financial infrastructure. The payment system is, by its characteristics, a natural monopoly, and it's so important that makes sense that it become public. If that was t…
The Fed already intends to provide a real time payment system by 2023-2024 [1]. These accounts wouldn’t provide credit, simply hold deposits, hence the desire of this proposal to make the (arguably) trivial leap to issue retail accounts directly. The Fed implicitly backs the currency, so no FDIC insurance is required (an antiquated holdover from the savings and loan days, superseded by securitization of debt in the capital markets).
I assume fintechs of any size would be permitted to issue credit to folks by transfers directly into these accounts (in real time), thereby allowing for innovation while providing a bare minimum of financial service to citizens.
[1] https://www.bankingdive.com/news/fed-gives-new-details-on-it...
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#9Commercial banking, together with the Intellectual Property system, is one of the greatest Rentier swindles of all time. We are literally renting the money we use, for extortionate prices [1]. "The dollar as a reserve currency transfers wealth from the rest of world to the USA One final way in which money works today that has a substantial effect on the workings of the global political economy is the use of the US do…
In exchange the United States act like the world's rent-a-cop, keeping shipping lanes open and getting rid of those who stand in the way of global commerce (sometimes violently). Inflation on the reserve currency is more or less a tax in exchange for these services. Who benefits the most? Pretty sure the answer isn't the common people of (insert any country name here, including the United States).
Re: Central Banking for All: A Public Option for Bank Accounts (2018) [pdf]
#10Is there a place in the US, outside maybe some really rural areas, where a credit union isn't available that doesn't offer accounts to the general population? In my experience credit unions' checking accounts are free. (I realize that this proposal is something slightly different, but I wanted to preempt the inevitable "poor are unbanked because of fees" claims.)
Don't know how many people are unbanked due to refusal by financial institutions to open an account for them, but ChexSystems exists to let banks know if their potential account holder has had banking issues in the past. At the lower end of the economic spectrum where margins for error are low, there likely is a non-insignificant number of people with bad banking histories who now find it difficult to open a bank account.