Comments

1
I'd rather have municipal internet.
2
If a municipal bank holds that much collateral just so Seattle doesn't have to do business with a big 5 bank, it's going to be a very bad bank.

It won't be able to offer very competitive rates on deposits or lend to very many small businesses.

You'll just make a high cost bank for cannabis businesses, that may or may not run afoul of federal law and might or might not be able to actually provide essential banking services like moving money--because it won't resolve any of the reasons that cannabis businesses can't bank now.

Public banks work best when they are big, because--actually--banks work best when they are big. Or at least that's true if banking is a commodity (which it is for everyone who wants to pay low fees to bank). That's why big banks are big. A public bank is a good project for a state (or group of states) but would be very hard for a city.
3
Bob isn't embarrassed, Heidi, and neither are those of us who supported him. When this election is certified, Bob and the new mayor will still be serving the public in elected office, and all the other mayoral also-rans won't. Plus his major platform plank has life, and will continue to have life. So you can stick your snarky comment where the sun doesn't shine.
4
Now with Seattle's strongest leader on board, a municipal bank has a real chance.
5
@2 Truth.

@4 Poe.
7
Since Heidi neglected to cover this in her article, anyone in the commentariat care to explain why Sawant believes Seattle needs a municipal bank?
8
Seattle so liberal. Conservative cities stick to a city's true core services, like building statues to white supremacists and monuments to the Ten Commandments. Or helping the Federal Government deport people.
9
North Dakota has their own public bank and it works great... Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn ... is that Russian for Vodka?
11
@9 If you look into what the BND does and how it works you'll find lot's of reasons why it is a poor comparison to what (I think) is being talked about for Seattle. And it's able to operate precisely because it's a state bank, not a municipal bank. For example, it's deposits are not insured by the FDIC, but by the state's general fund. It's not a major player in commercial banking in the state, and operated nothing like how it's populist early-champions envisioned.
12
I'd like to propose a study on why Sawant thinks every stupid idea she comes across needs hundreds of thousands of dollars to be studied.
13
Harris-Talley, O'Brien and Sawant are moving the needle. Would I move my money from BECU--which I love--to a municipal bank? In. A. Second.
14
@8 Are there "conservative cities?"

I mean, sure, when you go beneath the 200K population cap. If you want to call those pathetic burgs cities. So, outside the Oil belt most of those conservative cities (big towns) are broke as fuck.

that's what is so pathetic about the rightwing rhetoric on the eeeeevil liberality of big cities... the eeeeevil liberal big cities are what generate nearly ALL the money so they have the luxury of contemplating experiments like this that shit holes in Red States can't do.
15
I’m not sure what problem a municipal bank is trying to solve. And I know enough to understand that starting and running a bank is super complicated and could be a massive failure.

Small banks aren’t exactly making a lot of money. They can barely keep up with all the various regulations (there are a lot) and who’s going to build the systems infrastructure (also extremely complex).

I feel like we have actual real problems to address
16
@13 Why would you blindly put your money in a yet-to-be-defined Seattle municipal bank? I ask that quite sincerely. What features do you believe it will offer — or what benefit would it promote — which makes you feel so strongly about something so uncertain?
18
Only one thing worse than bankers running banks and that's politicians running banks.
20
"Only one thing worse than bankers running banks and that's politicians running banks."

I hate to break it to you, but the politicians already run the banks. And the banks run the politicians. One hand washes the other.

The only thing new about a municipal bank is one less layer of obscurity to hide what's going on inside. Some day I'll tell you the truth about who runs the health insurance industry.
21
Perfect timing Sawant says, they can't find another bank after their Wells Fargo fiasco. Loved how Wells Fargo called their bluff to end relationship right away and the city backed down once reality set in.

So with the two lawsuits and this study, Sawant could cost this city over $500k. Get her out.
22
@9 Is "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" German for racist?

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