By Bob Walsh
The idea of a "Public Bank" was allegedly fired up about
100 years ago to help farmers in North Dakota get access to banking
services. It is now being considered as a Municipal Public Bank to
assist in funding housing and small businesses in the People's Republic
of San Francisco.
There has been a nine member "working group" in S F looking at the idea. (SF is good at studying shit.)
Last
year the Bank of North Dakota had a tad over $10 billion in assets and a
profit of $191 million. It does not make direct loans but does make
loans to other financial institutions to allow them to loan money at far
below what would otherwise be the going rate. They have been doing
that since 1919.
It is
possible this could be up and running next year. They hope to be able
to fund $60 million in loans in the first three years of operation, a
lot of them business start-up loans in the $100,000 range, too small for
many large banks to want to deal with.
It
is unclear where the initial funding would come from. Perhaps the
money fairy who helps balance the state budget will kick down.
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