Public banks of one form or another are emerging like Spring flowers. Across the USA a score of new public interest banking initiatives aim to fill service and credit voids that private finance won’t or can’t provide. Today we discuss three emerging applications of public bank principles: serving the substantial number of un-and underbanked people in California through the proposed new BankCAL program, creating a multi-trillion-dollar public infrastructure bank for the US, and clear evidence that public banks have excelled over private banks in responding to the global pandemic crisis. Our guests are Trinity Tran of the CA Public Bank Alliance, Alphecca Muttardy of the National Infrastructure Bank Coalition, and Thomas Marois, a leading expert on public banks globally.
