March 7, 2019—Rep. Shelly Willingham (D-Martin) introduced a “joint resolution urging Congress to enact without delay an “American Economic Recovery Program” into the North Carolina State Legislature on Feb. 17. House Joint Resolution 190 has five cosponsors and has been referred to the Banking Committee as the first step.
The full text of the Resolution can be found on the North Carolina legislative website.
The major elements of the American Economic Recovery Program are 1) restoration of Glass-Steagall banking separation; 2) establishment of a Hamiltonian national bank using “repurposed” Federal debt; 3) launching of a major infrastructure program which will employ millions rebuilding and upgrading U.S. transportation, energy, water systems, and the like; and 4) launching a JFK-like crash program for space exploration and the commercialization of fusion power.
Similar memorials have already been introduced in Arizona, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Virginia. The memorial passed in the South Carolina House of Representatives.
A model for a Hamiltonian national bank for infrastructure is featured on this blog. Unlike the bills for “infrastructure banks” which have been introduced into the Congress, a Hamiltonian bank would be capitalized by already-existing Federal government debt, thus adding virtually nothing to the Federal deficit. It would have the potential to bring to bear trillions of dollars of investment, approximating the actual need for infrastructure repair and upgrade, and avoid the pitfalls of PPPs, which leave projects in hock to greedy private investors.
The resolution points to the infrastructure benefits, especially in water projects, that accrued to North Carolina in the Tennessee Valley Authority, as an example of kinds of measures needed with Federal financial backing today.
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Tags: American Recovery Program, Glass-Steagall, infrastructure bank, North Carolina, Shelly Willingham