Reply #12: Public banking would actually save a lot of taxpayers' money

[Terry in Austin]

The German Sparkessen are a long-standing example of public banking that we could learn a thing or two from.

South Dakota's state bank is fairly well-known, and the state is in very good economic shape. A political candidate in Florida recently proposed a state bank. http://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/florida-political-leaders-consider-state-bank-2-mortgages-6-credit-cards-no-state-debt-costs">This article details some of the advantages of public banking:

One of the immediate benefits of a state-owned bank is ending interest payments on existing debt. If California created its own bank, they could issue 0% credit to themselves to buy existing debt and save $5 billion every year that they pay in interest. To put that number in perspective, California has 20,000 laid-off teachers. All could be rehired at $70,000/year and California would still have $3.4 billion of their saved money left-over. Retiring the national debt would be different, but just as easy; saving Americans $450 billion every year in interest costs.

Perhaps a better outcome than directly nationalizing Bank of America would be to liquidate it, put it through bankruptcy proceedings and incorporate any leftovers into a new public bank.