public bank la

The People's Bank

Vote Yes on Charter Amendment B!

CHARTER AMENDMENT B is the first step towards exploring the creation of a socially, economically, and environmentally responsible city-owned bank. The measure is cost-free and risk-free. It simply removes one barrier to establishing a bank. A sound business plan would follow, to be approved by voters and officials. *** Last year the City of Los Angeles paid $170 million in banking fees and $1.1 billion in interest to big banks and investors. Banks have leveraged our tax dollars to finance harmful industries including private prisons, fossil fuel extraction, and weapons manufacturing. *** In 2017, the City of Los Angeles divested its funds from Wells Fargo, which was fined billions of dollars for creating illegal customer accounts, has a history of discriminating against Latino and African-American home buyers, and finances industries harmful to Angelenos. Local community banks are too small to manage the city’s funds, but Wall Street is not the only alternative. *** Banking as a public utility is a proven model worldwide. Public banks keep money local and cut costs by eliminating middlemen, shareholders and high-paid executives. During the 2008-09 Recession, the century-old public Bank of North Dakota safeguarded taxpayers’ money and helped finance a statewide economic boom, while Wall Street banks needed billions in taxpayer bailouts. *** Charter Amendment B clears a path for Los Angeles to declare its independence from Wall Street. A public bank would safeguard and grow the city’s assets through loans to critical city projects and local businesses. The bank would be answerable not to politicians but to an independent board of governors comprised of residents. Its mission would be to serve Angelenos. A public bank will ensure that Los Angeles tax dollars are invested in a way that measurably improves the community. *** On November 6, 2018, VOTE YES ON CHARTER AMENDMENT B!

problem

The City of Los Angeles paid over $109 million in fees and interests to commercial banks in 2016.

solution

With a city-owned bank, our revenues stays within our city. By cutting out Wall Street as the middle man, banking profit gets reinvested back into our communities.

vision

Imagine a City Public Bank revolution where every major city has its own public bank with a social and environmental charter, explicitly designed to serve the needs of the local community.

How can public banking benefit you?

Rebuild and regenerate our communities through public financing ✓ Build affordable housing, ease the homelessness crisis ✓ Finance infrastructure including water projects, roads, bridges, and schools ✓ Invest in small business development ✓ Drive the renewable energy revolution and build climate change resilience ✓ Deliver student loan debt relief ✓ Serve the needs of the unbanked and under-banked populations

Public Bank LA Petition

public bank revolution

Economic power in the hands of the people

Private interests run the economy for the benefit of the very few and the financial elites designed it that way. The economic and political spheres are separated, making the flow of private capital immune to public scrutiny as it now stands. The economy is where the real power lies; so without the power to guide the economy in the name of people and planet, our political leaders have been unable to provide meaningful solutions to the problems we now face.

Divesting from one extractive Wall Street behemoth only to reinvest into another is an illusion of progress. The time has come to not only look at the symptoms of a pernicious financial system; the time has come to radically transform the system itself.

Reinvest profit back into the community

You’ve watched the videos and read the articles on the extractive nature of our private banking system. You’ve learned about the hubris, the greed, the foreclosures, the war profiteering and the pipelines. You might have hoped the bankers responsible for the crash be brought to justice or have a general sense of discontent and that a new system is overdue that acts in the name of the 100%.

The time has come to create a public bank in the name of the People. Instead of slapping Wall Street on the wrist, ditch Wall Street altogether. Provide funding for all the things we need like green energy and affordable housing. Reinvest profits back into the community (instead of banker bonuses).

For the People, not the plutocrats

The People, not the plutocrats, should benefit from economic activity. The People’s Bank will ensure that this is always the case- it will be built into its very makeup- constructed with a value system that all investments and financial dealings align within a strict code of ethics, guided by the tenets of social justice, community development, and environmental sustainability.

Imagine it. Instead of private shareholders, we the people are the shareholders. Instead of bankers as profiteering speculators, they would be public servants appointed by and accountable to the people, who would be rewarded for improving the community or fired for serving themselves.