With credit still tight around the country, support for new public state banks is growing

[marmar]

from In These Times:



A New Model to Bank On
With credit still tight around the country, support for new public state banks is growing.

BY David Moberg


Jim Houser, co-owner of Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Ore., saw an opportunity to increase his sales of “plug-in” electrical charging kits for the locally popular Prius hybrid cars. But when he talked with his bank about a loan for enlarging his shop, which employs 14 full- and part-time workers, he got the distinct sense “that it would be a waste of time to formally apply for a loan.”

“Credit has dried up out there,” says Houser, co-chair of one of the state’s small business organizations, The Main Street Alliance. “It is hurting small businesses tremendously.”

Mahlon Vigesaa, president and CEO of CenterPointe Community Bank in the rural region of Hood River, Ore., has a different credit problem. There’s a promising wind power project in the bank’s service area that needs to borrow $6 million. A large out-of-state bank turned down the developer’s request, which Vigesaa would love to finance. But it’s too big for CenterPointe to do on its own.

“Big banks are not lending in small-town America,” says Barbara Dudley, co-chair of the Oregon Working Families Party. “They are either not lending or lending overseas,” thus slowing economic recovery and job creation. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/11964/a_new_model_to_bank_on

[truedelphi]

1. Goldman Sachs used part of its Bailout Monies to buy up a Nature Preserve

In Patagonia (That's in Argentina.)

So I guess you can admit that GS created jobs for AMericans - as long as they' re willing to endure one awesome commute.

If the House Oversight on Finance had been listened to, this idea of having state-chartered, regional banks, mandated to promote economic recovery in every region in the nation, and not just of the Upper Elite of Wall Street, would already be in full array of lending and promoting local Main street businesses.

And a true economic recovery would be in progress.

Instead, Obama listened to whomever it was that told him to appoint Geithner, a man who had already had a bad reputation in the Far East (and Australia) for destroying Japan's economy.

So now our Main Street is shuttered and boarded up. Which is very tragic, as usually, in normal times, 62% of all new jobs come from Main Street.

[valerief]

2. State banks would help real people not billionaires. Heck, it would hurt billionaires.

That's what makes them so dangerous.

[Demeter]

3. It's time to take money away from the banksters.