On Feb 8 2014, Randall Parr of Appleton, Maine came to WRFR community radio to discuss the concept of public banking.
Click here to listen to Parr's 50 minute interview with producer Ron Huber, as we discuss that and the evolution of banking over the millenia, and Parr answers questions from a caller - and with myself as a proxy reader, questions from Maine bankers!
Randall Parr is an economist and data architechture consultant. A former naval officer, Parr has taught economics at colleges in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
Parr was instrumental in bringing a public banking proposal, LD 1508 An Act To Create a Public State Bankbefore the Maine legislature in 2013
In an op-ed later that year, following the bill's defeat, Parr wrote that
"One state that emerged from the 2008 panic-recession without budget shortfalls was the “State of North Dakota Doing Business as Bank of North Dakota,” the nation’s only combined state-public bank."
"Without a state-public bank — which Maine’s Legislature had the opportunity to create earlier this year — Maine lawmakers had to raise taxes in 2013 to meet revenue shortfalls in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. A public bank could have insulated Maine from reduced tax revenues during economic contractions, increasing liquidity, jobs and personal income, as the Bank of North Dakota has done for that state."
With that bill down, what next? Listen and find out.
we need to expose the politicians taking bribes from private banks.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mr Parr, for continuing to fight for a Maine Public Bank, that will keep our money here serving Maine small businesses and provide Maine with interest on its own money, loaned to those who serve and live in Maine. Why would the State not avoid paying the private Banks interest on loans that really are the States own funds? Its like me giving John Doe 100 dollars to watch over for me, and then me borrowing 50 dollars from John and him demanding 10% interest, when its my own funds that provides him the ability to make loans to myself and others. Let Maine's small Banks, Credit Unions make good money in bank fees, servicing the State money loaned locally, but let Maine receive the benefit of the interest paid, lessening the need to increase taxes on the public. This is a no-brainer for Conservatives, Liberals, Progressives, Libertarians, Socialists, or whatever you identify as. No Tax increase, put the power of Money creation literally in the Government's hands, as our Revolutionary fathers intended, and keep our money here local, not in NYC, Boston or Canada through TD Bank.
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