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15 Vermont Towns Vote to Start a Public Bank that Works for Them, Not Wall Street
Source: The Contributor
Posted March 6, 2014
By a more than three-to-one margin on Tuesday, communities voting on whether to support the creation of a public bank in Vermont approved the idea, calling for the state legislature to establish such a bank and urging passage of legislation designed to begin its implementation.
In a show of direct democracy that also exposed the citizenry’s desire for a more localized and responsible banking system, fifteen of nineteen towns passed the resolution during ‘Town Meeting Day’— an annual event in which voters choose local officials, approve municipal budgets, and make their voices heard on a number of measures put before local residents for approval.
The specific proposal under consideration, Senate Bill 204, would turn an existing agency, the Vermont Economic Development Authority, into a public bank that would accept deposits and issue loans for in-state projects. Currently, the only state in the U.S. to maintain a public state bank is North Dakota. However, since the financial downturn of 2008, other states have looked into replicating the North Dakota model as a way to buck Wall Street while taking more control of state and local finances.
Read more: http://thecontributor.com/15-towns-vote-start-public-bank-works-people-vermont-not-wall-street
State Bank of Vermont
Posted Mar 10, 2014
Vermont town meetings voted overwhelmingly to support a state-chartered, state-owned bank.
Prosperity For Main Street, Not Wall Street
February 28,2014 timesargus.com
A state bank makes sense
The 2008 financial meltdown revealed that there are serious systemic flaws in the system which continue to threaten our economic well-being. A growing number of Vermonters are advocating for the creation of a state partnership bank in the state as a way of mitigating some of these threats.
Senate bill 204 would expand the Vermont Economic Development Authority to become a state bank and would start out by depositing 10 percent of Vermont’s unrestricted money into the state bank. The bank would be able to leverage this money by means available only to banks to bolster the economy of the state and cut down on the interest payments and fees that are presently paid to out-of-state financial institutions and other entities. The bank would not engage in retail banking and would not compete with community banks; it would work with community banks to maintain their viability and expand their ability to help create better economic outcomes for Vermonters by partnering with them in projects they would not be able to engage in on their own.
Presently, large public projects are, to a large extent, funded by bonding and other private investment which requires the state to pay interest and fees that often do not get recycled into the local economy. Bond sales are managed by Wall Street firms, which seem to rig everything they can to further enrich themselves. In addition to the fees that they charge for this service, it is possible that they are rigging the process to divert funds that would otherwise be available to the state into their own pockets. While the cost of bonding is relatively cheap now, it will likely increase in the next few years if not sooner and the bond market could dry up. Creating a state bank now and growing it could put us in a position where we can substantially lessen the need to float bonds to fund large public projects.
One of the many risks in the present system is the derivatives bubble. Global derivatives holdings are estimated at 20 times the entire gross world product. Many respected economists and financial experts are convinced that sooner or later this bubble will burst, and when it does, there will be widespread bank failures.
The state deposits most of its “checkbook” funds in TD Bank. Its parent company has derivative contracts that are five times its total assets. The processes set up for dealing with failed banks have mechanisms by which counterparties in derivatives could get first dibs on retrieving their money. If TD Bank takes a big hit when the derivative bubble bursts, by the time it is Vermont’s turn to retrieve our money, all we could be left with is stock certificates in a new bank that is created by regulators out of the rubble. How many of our bills will we be able to pay with these stock certificates?
I urge you to contact your state senators and members of the Senate Finance Committee and urge them to create a state partnership bank and vote for S.204.
Gary Murphy
South Ryegate
.
RELATED:
https://ronmamita.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/2-research-public-banking/
https://ronmamita.wordpress.com/2013/12/08/permanent-boycotts-not-for-a-week-not-for-a-month-for-however-long-it-takes/
https://ronmamita.wordpress.com/2014/01/28/cash-deposited-in-the-bank-is-no-longer-yours/
https://ronmamita.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/warning-your-savings-are-not-safe-in-the-bank/
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Reblogged this on Spartan of Truth and commented:
That’s awesome news! Thanks for sharing Ron…
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Yes, this does reinforce the signals and trend that a minority of wealth and citizens understand a problem exists and that “change” truly is required…
but will not come from D.C. (political District of Crime).
Unfortunately public banks are still relying on FRNs, the nation’s currency, perhaps those states can be convinced to also accept complementary currencies?
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I think the people will take care of the currency thing really. They won’t stop trading with each other, so it doesn’t matter if they trade jube-jube’s for all I care, as long as it’s a representation of my value and it’s accepted by another eternal essence.
It wasn’t long ago that we here in Canada were trading beaver pelts!
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NYSE Closed 1914 – Was it Gear of Liquidation or Capital Flows?
Source: http://armstrongeconomics.com/2014/03/15/19483/

QUESTION: I read that during World War I they closed the stock exchange for several months. Do you think this will take place again? I see few people quote you because you have the facts and they are like Al Gore, just full of hot air. You seem to be the only reliable source so if they do not quote you, they are probably not real.
Thank you so much for your efforts.
HB
ANSWER: There is so much rhetoric out there that is just wrong, only the unbiased would dare quote me for often it is a matter of integrity and trying to figure out what really makes the world tick instead of beating on your chest. If they have something to sell, then there is an agenda. The news channels and newspapers these days are just propaganda machines with an agenda. Look at Fox News and then look at the extremes like the Ed Show. Neither would dare say anything neutral about their hated political parties. They display to the world nothing different from Pravda. Same shit. It ain’t news if you have a spin.
This question is important today for those who want to understand the markets instead of people preaching some financial religion. What you state is true about the closure, yet not the “whole” truth. That event (Panic 1914) caused two major changes.
(1) the NYSE was really closed because of capital flows. There was a massive selling of US securities to take gold back to Europe to pay for the war where gold became more valuable in Europe moving to a premium at first. This is what I mean when I say it is a hedge against government. Gold moved to a premium because you do not know which currency will survive. That flipped and then the capital poured back to the USA when it became clear gold was not even safe in Europe period. Instead of abandoning the gold standard because of the massive drain from Europe, they close the NYSE thinking that would not impact the “image” of the USA abandoning the monetary system. So it was by no means a pure reflect upon stocks – it was capital flows.
The gold promoters have WRONGLY claimed inflation/hyperinflation causes gold to rise whereas in those cases everything rises in value against the currency as in Germany. This Panic of 1914 you never hear about was a hedge of what I refer to against government. It is a GLOBAL rise in the purchasing power of gold because of uncertainty as to whose currency survives – NOT because of inflation caused by one country that the dollar-haters have transformed this event into. It is WHY I have also stated that the fundamental requirement of a bull market is the rise MUST take place in all currencies. Unless you FULLY understand the REAL historical facts, you will buy on the wrong info and lose your shirt when it declines because you bought for the wrong reason.
(2) When the exchange reopened in 1915, how stocks traded was altered, which is why you will find real data on the NYSE back only to 1915. Previously, stocks traded in dollars, but the quotes were expressed as a percentage of the stock’s par value. Therefore, prior to 1915, stocks traded like bonds say 95 was 5% below par. Beginning in 1915, the NYSE reopened and traded at “market value”.
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