Alternative Banking Structures Can fill the gaps

Our existing large corporate systems are failing society, including finance, health care, energy providers and more.  But they so dominate the political process that there is little chance of forcing a change in their behavior.

Do we have any options? Yes. The corporate vehicle is, we believe, misdirected.  It is possible to re-deploy those institutions in a more socially, environmentally and economically beneficial manner, while preserving what is good about the for-profit model. We thereby develop a healthy, sustainable economy.

And small business can lead the way, as it has long been both the engine of innovation in our country and the source of the majority of new jobs. However, small business is being choked by a lack of credit and the lack of credit can be directly traced to the poor health of community banks throughout the nation. See Community Banks & Small Business for more on that topic.

The Commonwealth Group is comprised of professionals from business, law, politics, finance, banking and other disciplines, who have come together to develop solutions to the problems caused by a dysfunctional financial system. Our solutions focus on the issue that stands at the very center of our economic problems - the general lack of money.

The key to solving that problem can be found in a fundamental change in the banking industry. Fortunately, that solution does not require intervention by Washington, Wall Street or anyone else. Each state and its citizens are in a position to rapidly turn around their local economies, with solutions that are completely within their control.

We call this new form of banking “public banking.”  The basic concept is explained in the article Public Banking – A Tool For Fixing The Economy And The Means to Achieve It.  The article Three Approaches - Alternatives for Publicly Owned Banks delineates three possible approaches to establishing a publicly owned bank -- banks owned by governments, by non-profits and a hybrid model. 

In the near term, we believe the hybrid model is the most compelling. It is described  in detail in the article A Common Bank Holding Company For States, Counties & Cities: A Solution for Our Economic Problems and its companion article Public Banking & L3Cs - The For-profit With The Non-profit Soul.