Working Paper Number
538
Publication Date
3-2021
Abstract
In this paper, we analyze the contemporary public banking initiatives in the US. We first provide a brief historical account of public-oriented banking in the US. We then map out the central nodes in the contemporary public banking advocacy networks. Based on an online questionnaire and semi-structured interviews we held with public banking organizers and experts across the country, we provide an overview of the achievements of this growing movement, describe the central socio- economic issues they organize around, and examine the challenges they face. We demonstrate that the interest in public banking is a reaction to a number of socio-economic and ecological issues the US faces, including the infrastructure crisis, ecological crisis, financial exclusion, and problems stemming from the management of state and local government resources. We argue that public banking can be an important tool in addressing these problems and suggest how the federal government, through the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, can support these initiatives.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/27135847
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.