Sign of the times: Economy prompts fresh look at ND's socialist bank

news.yahoo.com...

The Bank of North Dakota — the nation's only state-owned bank — might seem to be a relic. It was the brainchild of a failed flax farmer and one-time Socialist Party organizer during World War I.

But now officials in other states are wondering if it is helping North Dakota sail through the national recession.

Gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Oregon and a Washington state legislator are advocating the creation of state-owned banks in those states. A report prepared for a Vermont House committee last month said the idea had "considerable merit." Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore promotes the bank on his Web site.

"There's a lot of hurt out there, a lot of states that are in trouble, and they're tying the Bank of North Dakota together with this economic success that we're having right now," said the bank's president, Eric Hardmeyer.

It goes on from there. I love this idea, I have always been a strong supporter of state run banks that would not operate like the greedy corporate money hungry banks that we have to deal with in every state except N. Dakota. I live in Florida and I could only pray that we establish a state bank. If that s the reason N. Dakota has only a 4.4% unemployment rate for December. en.wikipedia.org...
As well as a budget surplus.

[edit on 2/16/10 by Misoir]

It is in fact a great idea for several reasons.

-It provides income that is not dependent on taxes for the state, thus reducing the impact of the eternal tax-cut/tax-hike cycle.
-It enables the state to guide the economy, by providing cheap funding for specific industries without resorting to tax cuts or giveaways.
-The bank can set policies that are friendly to small business and private depositors, rather than big corporations.

reply to post by Misoir


I can support a state run Bank... Like the Bank of Ohio, as long as there is friendly completion and the Citizens of Ohio are the shareholders...

Originally posted by poedxsoldiervet
reply to post by Misoir

 

I can support a state run Bank... Like the Bank of Ohio, as long as there is friendly completion and the Citizens of Ohio are the shareholders...

They say this would actually help small businesses and others looking for loans which corporate banks won't hand out. They also say it would really piss off the corporate banks because they would have extremely tough competion which they could not compete with.

They say this would actually help small businesses and others looking for loans which corporate banks won't hand out.

They also say it would really piss off the corporate banks because they would have extremely tough competion which they could not compete

Which is why it won't happen. Bankers don't like competition, particularly competition that will enable people to hang on to their houses.

Bankers don't want competition that will work with people instead of bleeding them dry.