[PAULYPOKER]

(AP) The Bank of North Dakota - the nation's only state-owned bank - might seem to be a relic.But now officials in other states are wondering if it is helping North Dakota sail through the national recession.Gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Oregon and a Washington state legislator are advocating the creation of state-owned banks in those states. A report prepared for a Vermont House committee last month said the idea had "considerable merit." Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore promotes the bank on his Web site."There's a lot of hurt out there, a lot of states that are in trouble, and they're tying the Bank of North Dakota together with this economic success that we're having right now," said the bank's president, Eric Hardmeyer.Hardmeyer says he's gotten "tons" of inquiries about the bank's workings, including questions from officials in California, Michigan, New Mexico, Ohio and Washington state. North Dakota has the nation's lowest unemployment rate at 4.4 percent, soaring oil production and a robust state budget surplus - but Hardmeyer says the bank isn't responsible for the prosperity."We are a catalyst, perhaps, or maybe a part of it," he said. "To put this at our feet is flattering, but it frankly isn't true."



The Bank of North Dakota serves as an economic development agency and "banker's bank" that lessens the loan risks of private banks and helps them finance larger projects. It offers cheap loans to farmers, students and businesses.
The bank had almost $4 billion in assets and a $2.67 billion loan portfolio at the end of last year, according to its most recent quarterly financial report. It made $58.1 million in profits in 2009, setting a record for the sixth straight year. During the last decade, the bank funneled almost $300 million in profits to North Dakota's treasury.
The bank has the advantage of being the repository for most state funds, which can be used for loans and occasional relief for private banks that need a jolt of cash during sluggish credit markets.
"We think of ourselves as kind of a little mini-Federal Reserve," Hardmeyer said.
The state earns roughly 0.25 percent less interest than state agencies would get from a commercial institution. The bank also pays no state or federal taxes and has no deposit insurance; North Dakota taxpayers are on the hook for any losses.
The Bank of North Dakota was a cornerstone of the agenda of the Nonpartisan League, a farmers' political insurgency spawned by anger about outside control of North Dakota's credit and grain markets.
Founded in 1915 by A.C. Townley, who became a Socialist Party organizer after he went broke raising flax in western North Dakota, the NPL advocated state-owned banks to provide low-interest farm loans, along with state flour mills, grain elevators, meatpacking houses and hail insurance.
Supporters gained control of the legislature and the governorship within five years. The movement's power quickly waned, but two of its state-owned businesses survived - the Bank of North Dakota and a state flour mill and grain elevator in Grand Forks.
From the 1940s until the early 1960s, the bank served mostly as a public funds depository and municipal bond buyer, said Rozanne Enerson Junker, author of a 1989 history of the bank. Its economic development activity has greatly expanded since.
Gary Petersen, president of the Lakeside State Bank of New Town, a community on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in northwestern North Dakota, said the state bank is often willing to take a stake in local development projects.
"In my experience, you make a contact with the (Bank of North Dakota), and their question is, 'How do we get this done?'" Petersen said. "They're not looking at ways to knock it down."
Alerus Financial, a Grand Forks bank, has sold about $115 million of its $600 million loan portfolio to the Bank of North Dakota, both to spread its risk and provide itself with additional loan money, said Karl Bollingberg, Alerus' director of banking services.
"If you're left to find other participating banks, that can be very challenging," he said. "They don't have the same interest that the Bank of North Dakota has in helping you to do deals."
Mauro Guillen, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business, said it is unlikely other states would open similar banks, in part because "the political culture here is very much against that kind of a thing."
Some state and federal agencies, such as the Small Business Administration, already have economic development programs similar to those at the Bank of North Dakota, Guillen said.
Bollingberg said the idea of other state-owned banks would also likely rouse opposition from private banks that wanted to keep their share of state deposits. "Because the (Bank of North Dakota) has been here so long, no banks know what it was like to have those deposits," he said.
Hardmeyer said he, too, was always doubtful others would take up North Dakota's model, but now he's not so sure.
"When I see what's going on around the country, it's not quite as far a leap as I thought it once was," he said.
___
On the Net:
Bank of North Dakota: http://www.banknd.nd.gov/

[PAULYPOKER]

Unemployment Rates for States

Unemployment Rates for States Monthly Rankings Seasonally Adjusted May 2012p
Rank	State	Rate
1	NORTH DAKOTA	3.0
2	NEBRASKA	3.9
3	SOUTH DAKOTA	4.3
4	VERMONT	4.6
5	OKLAHOMA	4.8
6	NEW HAMPSHIRE	5.0
7	IOWA	5.1
8	WYOMING	5.2
9	MINNESOTA	5.6
9	VIRGINIA	5.6
11	MASSACHUSETTS	6.0
11	UTAH	6.0
13	KANSAS	6.1
14	HAWAII	6.3
14	MONTANA	6.3
16	NEW MEXICO	6.7
17	DELAWARE	6.8
17	MARYLAND	6.8
17	WISCONSIN	6.8
20	TEXAS	6.9
20	WEST VIRGINIA	6.9
22	ALASKA	7.0
23	LOUISIANA	7.2
24	ARKANSAS	7.3
24	MISSOURI	7.3
24	OHIO	7.3
27	ALABAMA	7.4
27	MAINE	7.4
27	PENNSYLVANIA	7.4
30	CONNECTICUT	7.8
30	IDAHO	7.8
32	INDIANA	7.9
32	TENNESSEE	7.9
34	COLORADO	8.1
35	ARIZONA	8.2
35	KENTUCKY	8.2
37	WASHINGTON	8.3
38	OREGON	8.4
39	MICHIGAN	8.5
40	FLORIDA	8.6
40	ILLINOIS	8.6
40	NEW YORK	8.6
43	MISSISSIPPI	8.7
44	GEORGIA	8.9
45	SOUTH CAROLINA	9.1
46	NEW JERSEY	9.2
47	DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	9.3
48	NORTH CAROLINA	9.4
49	CALIFORNIA	10.8
50	RHODE ISLAND	11.0
51	NEVADA	11.6

[PAULYPOKER]

The 2009 State Crime Rate Rankings

RANK STATE SUM 08 RANK CHANGE
38 Alabama 14.24 36 -2 1 New Hampshire (61.12) 1 0
44 Alaska 29.23 43 -1 2 Vermont (60.35) 4 2
43 Arizona 28.78 46 3 3 Maine (56.13) 2 -1
40 Arkansas 16.06 40 0 4 North Dakota (55.05) 3 -1
37 California 14.02 38 1 5 South Dakota (52.82) 5 0
24 Colorado (16.77) 26 2 6 Montana (46.91) 7 1
10 Connecticut (39.30) 11 1 7 Wyoming (43.49) 6 -1
34 Delaware 12.24 39 5 8 Iowa (41.19) 8 0
46 Florida 31.27 42 -4 9 Rhode Island (40.11) 12 3
39 Georgia 14.41 32 -7 10 Connecticut (39.30) 11 1
23 Hawaii (21.38) 23 0 11 Idaho (38.81) 9 -2
11 Idaho (38.81) 9 -2 12 West Virginia (38.34) 14 2
31 Illinois (0.24) 30 -1 13 Wisconsin (34.70) 10 -3
26 Indiana (12.49) 25 -1 14 Virginia (34.26) 15 1
8 Iowa (41.19) 8 0 15 New York (32.72) 19 4
29 Kansas (5.11) 27 -2 16 New Jersey (32.42) 20 4
22 Kentucky (22.85) 18 -4 17 Utah (31.00) 13 -4
49 Louisiana 48.24 49 0 18 Minnesota (29.55) 17 -1
3 Maine (56.13) 2 -1 19 Nebraska (27.82) 16 -3
42 Maryland 27.92 44 2 20 Oregon (24.93) 21 1
21 Massachusetts (24.33) 22 1 21 Massachusetts (24.33) 22 1
41 Michigan 17.32 41 0 22 Kentucky (22.85) 18 -4
18 Minnesota (29.55) 17 -1 23 Hawaii (21.38) 23 0
27 Mississippi (5.48) 28 1 24 Colorado (16.77) 26 2
32 Missouri 5.34 33 1 25 Pennsylvania (16.22) 24 -1
6 Montana (46.91) 7 1 26 Indiana (12.49) 25 -1
19 Nebraska (27.82) 16 -3 27 Mississippi (5.48) 28 1
50 Nevada 64.09 50 0 28 Ohio (5.47) 29 1
1 New Hampshire (61.12) 1 0 29 Kansas (5.11) 27 -2
16 New Jersey (32.42) 20 4 30 Washington (1.84) 31 1
47 New Mexico 38.40 48 1 31 Illinois (0.24) 30 -1
15 New York (32.72) 19 4 32 Missouri 5.34 33 1
33 North Carolina 9.37 35 2 33 North Carolina 9.37 35 2
4 North Dakota (55.05) 3 -1 34 Delaware 12.24 39 5
28 Ohio (5.47) 29 1 35 Oklahoma 12.42 34 -1
35 Oklahoma 12.42 34 -1 36 Texas 13.57 37 1
20 Oregon (24.93) 21 1 37 California 14.02 38 1
25 Pennsylvania (16.22) 24 -1 38 Alabama 14.24 36 -2
9 Rhode Island (40.11) 12 3 39 Georgia 14.41 32 -7
48 South Carolina 38.46 47 -1 40 Arkansas 16.06 40 0
5 South Dakota (52.82) 5 0 41 Michigan 17.32 41 0
45 Tennessee 29.41 45 0 42 Maryland 27.92 44 2
36 Texas 13.57 37 1 43 Arizona 28.78 46 3
17 Utah (31.00) 13 -4 44 Alaska 29.23 43 -1
2 Vermont (60.35) 4 2 45 Tennessee 29.41 45 0
14 Virginia (34.26) 15 1 46 Florida 31.27 42 -4
30 Washington (1.84) 31 1 47 New Mexico 38.40 48 1
12 West Virginia (38.34) 14 2 48 South Carolina 38.46 47 -1
13 Wisconsin (34.70) 10 -3 49 Louisiana 48.24 49 0
7 Wyoming (43.49) 6 -1 50 Nevada 64.09 50 0

[PAULYPOKER]

Violent Crime

A violent crime is defined as a forcible rape, assault on a person, murder, or robbery (or any combination of these crimes).

#1 – Maine, 119.4
Maine is a large, northern New England state known for its lobster and fisheries. It is the safest state for violent crime in the United States.#2 – Vermont, 140.8
Vermont is well-known for its skiing and maple syrup, and comes in second as safest state for violent crime in the US.#3 – New Hampshire, 166.0
Yet another New England state, New Hampshire is a political hot spot known for its conservative side in the area, taking third safest state status.

#4 – North Dakota, 200.5
Famous for Theodore Roosevelt National Park and all sorts of big outdoor activities, North Dakota snagged fourth on the lowest crime rate list here

.#5 – Utah, 225.6
The home of resorts, skiing, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Utah managed to snag the fifth spot for lowest violent crime rates.

Property Crime

Property crimes are defined as larceny (such as shoplifting), burglaries, and automobile theft.
#1 – South Dakota, 1,880.6
Well-known for the Mount Rushmore president’s monument and the Black Hills, South Dakota has the lowest property crime rates in the country.#2 – New York, 2,004.8
While some people may express shock at New York making the list, it’s important to remember this is not just the city – Upstate New York is also factored in to these numbers, giving it the number two slot for lowest property crime rates.#3 – Idaho, 2,089.0
Potatoes, big country, hiking, and outdoor activities make Idaho famous – and now, the fact that they have the third lowest property crime rate overall.
#4 – North Dakota, 2,142.7
Again, North Dakota took rank four on the lowest property crime rate – quite possibly making this the lowest overall crime rate
state.#5 – New Hampshire, 2,217.5
Another repeat “offender” from the violent crime list, New Hampshire may compete with North Dakota for lowest overall crime rates.Lowest crime rates aside, always remember to play it safe when visiting any location!

About The Author: Kevin Hughes is a Boise Idaho real estate agent servicing buyers and sellers in Idaho. If you’re looking for a great home in Idaho, you can visit Kevin’s website where you can search great cities like Boise,Meridian, Nampa, and Eagle. Photo Source

[Shaudius]

Of course its the bank, it clearly has nothing to do with the fact that North Dakota has recently found millions upon millions of barrels of oil within its borders which have employed tons of people(in a sparsely populated state) and given the state massive revenue with which to fund social programs that allow poor citizens to have benefits without having to resort to crime. Hell its right in the article you posted, "

soaring oil production and a robust state budget surplus - but Hardmeyer says the bank isn't responsible for the prosperity.

"We are a catalyst, perhaps, or maybe a part of it," he said. "To put this at our feet is flattering, but it frankly isn't true.""

[PAULYPOKER]

So what is your point?

This state has owned its own bank for almost 100 years,

Search back in Nth Dakotas history as far as you want and you will find they always had good economy.........

[PAULYPOKER]

Published June 16, 2012, 07:04 AMN.D. unemployment rate drops below 3 percent

North Dakota’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 2.7 percent in May, but even that isn’t a record low for the state.By: By Teri Finneman , Forum Communications, The Jamestown Sun




BISMARCK — North Dakota’s not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased to 2.7 percent in May, but even that isn’t a record low for the state.
The lowest May rate in at least 25 years occurred in 2001 when it was 2.3 percent, said Michael Ziesch, manager of Job Service North Dakota’s Labor Market Information Center.
However, the labor force also had 44,355 fewer people in May 2001, he said.
“That makes our current rate pretty impressive,” he said.
The May 2012 rate is a 0.4 percentage point decrease from April’s 3.1 percent and 0.5 percentage points less than one year ago, according to Job Service North Dakota. The national not seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May was 7.9 percent.
October is historically the lowest unemployment rate month, Ziesch said. In 1997, North Dakota’s not seasonally adjusted rate was 1.7 percent.
North Dakota had 391,859 people in the labor force in May compared with 384,211 one year ago.
Employers reported an estimated 26,700 more jobs compared with a year ago, a 6.8 percent gain, according to Job Service North Dakota.
Private industry sectors that led in job growth include mining and logging (6,600 jobs added); professional and business services (4,600); construction (3,400); and transportation, warehousing and utilities (3,400).
Job Service North Dakota reported 23,350 online job openings in May, 2.9 percent (709 jobs) fewer than April but 55.8 percent more (8,362 jobs) than one year ago.
Teri Finneman is a
multimedia reporter for
Forum Communications Co.

[Shaudius]

So what is your point?

This state has owned its own bank for almost 100 years,

Search back in Nth Dakotas history as far as you want and you will find they always had good economy.........

Its relativistic, North Dakota weathered the financial storm of 2008 fairly well because of the oil boom, but if you look back even 5 years North Dakota's unemployment rate compared to the national rate was fairly low, about a percentage below the national rate(less people unemployed), nothing really to write home about in those days, it has only now been out of the norm because again it survived the economic downturn relatively unscathed comparatively. This may have something to do with having a state run bank, as it was probably more insulated from the financial crisis, but it more likely has to do with the fact that its economy is booming and it has such a small population to begin with that every ounce of oil and natural resource exploited has a much more profound effect per capita than other locations.

This is no more thought out than any of your other numerous conspiracy theories. It is ridiculous to attribute unemployment rates to a bank. What do you think the bank does exactly that affects the unemployment rate so much? Do you honestly believe liquidity provided by a state run bank has a more profound effect than small population and amount of natural resources? Why would a similarly run federally mandated bank not have the same effect(the federal reserve)?

[andywend]

North Dakota has the nation's lowest unemployment rate at 4.4 percent,

Where does North Dakota rank in terms of blacks and hispanics as compared to the other 49 states?

The higher percentage of minorities in any given state, the higher the unemployment rate will be.

[PAULYPOKER]

This is no more thought out than any of your other numerous conspiracy theories.

con·spir·a·cy(kn-spîr-s)1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.

the·o·ry

   [thee-uh-ree, theer-ee] Show IPA
noun, plural the·o·ries.1.a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonlyregarded as correct, that can be used as principles ofexplanation and prediction for a class of phenomena:Einstein's theory of relativity. Synonyms: principle, law,doctrine.

2.a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural andsubject to experimentation, in contrast to well-establishedpropositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actualfact. Synonyms: idea, notion hypothesis, postulate.Antonyms: practice,verification,corroboration,substantiation.


So by definition all unlawful conspired acts are conspiracy theories including Osama and the 19 hijackers +1........

What you are trying to say is that only the government can produce true accusations of conspiracy theory......

You see our government has painted the picture of conspiracy theories to be defined as- a bunch of loons who question what the government tells them to believe without justifiable proof........

[PAULYPOKER]

Oil is certainly a factor, but it is not what has put North Dakota over the top,. Alaska has roughly thesame population as North Dakota and produces nearly twice as much oil, yet unemployment in Alaska is running at 7.7 percent. Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming have all benefited from a boom in energy prices, with Montana and Wyoming extracting much more gas than North Dakota has. The Bakken oil field stretches across Montana as well as North Dakota, with thegreatest Bakken oil production coming from Elm Coulee Oil Field in Montana. Yet Montana’s unemployment rate, like Alaska’s, is 7.7 percent.

[PAULYPOKER]

If its secret isn’t oil, what is so unique about the state? North Dakota has one thing that no other state has: its own state-owned bank.
Access to credit is the enabling factor that has fostered both a boom in oil and record profits from agriculture in North Dakota. The Bank of North Dakota (BND) does not compete with local banks but partners with them, helping with capital and liquidity requirements. It participates in loans, provides guarantees, and acts as a sort of mini-Fed for the state. In 2010, according to the BND’s annual report:

The Bank provided Secured and Unsecured Federal Fund Lines to 95 financial institutions with combined lines of over $318 million for 2010. Federal Fund sales averaged over $13 million per day, peaking at $36 million in June.

Over a 15-year period the BND has contributed more to the state budget than oil taxes have.
The BND also has a loan program called Flex PACE, which allows a local community to provide assistance to borrowers in areas of jobs retention, technology creation, retail, small business, and essential community services. In 2010, according to the BND annual report:

The need for Flex PACE funding was substantial, growing by 62 percent to help finance essential community services as energy development spiked in western North Dakota. Commercial bank participation loans grew to 64 percent of the entire $1.022 billion portfolio.

The BND’s revenues have also been a major boost to the state budget. It has contributed over $300 million in revenues over the last decade to state coffers, a substantial sum for a state with a population less than one-tenth the size of Los Angeles County. According to a study by the Center for State Innovation, from 2007 to 2009 the BND added nearly as much money to the state’s general fund as oil and gas tax revenues did (oil and gas revenues added $71 million while the Bank of North Dakota returned $60 million). Over a 15-year period, according to other data, the BND has contributed more to the state budget than oil taxes have.
The state-owned bank allows NorthDakota to capitalize on its resources to full advantage.
North Dakota’s money and banking reserves are being kept within the state and invested there. The BND’s loan portfolio shows a steady uninterrupted increase in North Dakotalending programs since 2006.
According to the annual BND report:

Financially, 2010 was our strongest year ever. Profits increased by nearly $4 million to $61.9 million during our seventh consecutive year of record profits. Earnings were fueled by a strong and growing deposit base, brought about by a surging energy and agricultural economy. We ended the year with the highest capital level in our history at just over $325 million. The Bank returned a healthy 19 percent ROE, which represents the state’s return on its investment.

A 19 percent return on equity! How many states are getting that sort of return on their Wall Street investments?
Timothy Canova is Professor of International Economic Law at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California. In a June 2011 paper called “The Public Option: The Case for Parallel Public Banking Institutions,” he compares North Dakota’s financial situation to California’s. He writes of North Dakota and its state-owned bank:

The state deposits its tax revenues in the Bank, which in turn ensures that a high portion of state funds are invested in the state economy. In addition, the Bank is able to remit a portion of its earnings back to the state treasury . . . . Thanks in part to these institutional arrangements, NorthDakota is the only state that has been in continuous budget surplus since before the financial crisis and it has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

He then compares the dire situation in California:

In contrast, California is the largest state economy in the nation, yet without a state-owned bank,is unable to steer hundreds of billions of dollars in state revenues into productive investment within the state. Instead, California deposits its many billions in tax revenues in large private banks which often lend the funds out-of-state, invest them in speculative trading strategies (including derivative bets against the state’s own bonds), and do not remit any of their earnings back to the state treasury. Meanwhile, California suffers from constrained private credit conditions, high unemployment levels well above the national average, and the stagnation of state and local tax receipts. The state’s only response has been to stumble from one budget crisis to another for the past three years, with each round of spending cuts further weakening itseconomy, tax base, and credit rating.

Not all states have oil, of course (and it’s hardly a sustainable basis for an economy), but all could learn from the state-owned bank that allows North Dakota to capitalize on its resources to full advantage. States that deposit their revenues and invest their capital in large Wall Street banks are giving this economic opportunity away.

[PAULYPOKER]

A number of other mineral-rich states were initially not affected bythe economic downturn, but they lost revenues with the later decline in oil prices. North Dakota is the only state to be in continuous budget surplus since the banking crisis of 2008. Its balance sheet is so strong that it recently reduced individual income taxes and property taxes by a combined $400 million, and is debating further cuts. It also has thelowest foreclosure rate and lowest CC default rate in the country, and it has had NO bank failures in at least the last decade.

[PAULYPOKER]

Where does North Dakota rank in terms of blacks and hispanics as compared to the other 49 states?

The higher percentage of minorities in any given state, the higher the unemployment rate will be.

---------------

[Shaudius]

As for Alaska, much of the oil reserves in Alaska are in ANWR. Additionally, Alaska has been known to have oil for decades/a century, meaning that a large portion of the oil exploitation has already been done, at least to the extent that the communities have matured to the point where there is population there not involved in the oil industry. North Dakota on the other hand has just found much of its oil resources in the last couple of decades, meaning they are still importing workers to meet demand for all of these new oil resources they are trying to exploit.

As for your liquidity argument, notice what the article says, " It participates in loans, provides guarantees, and acts as a sort of mini-Fed for the state." So if this bank is acting as a mini-Fed in effect, what makes you think it is in fact uniquely beneficial to the Fed? Do you believe its because it loans directly to people rather than banks as the Fed does?

There is something to be said for this, "The BND’s revenues have also been a major boost to the state budget. It has contributed over $300 million in revenues over the last decade to state coffers, a substantial sum for a state with a population less than one-tenth the size of Los Angeles County." But there are numerous ways to balance a state's budget that don't involve lending + interest, and simply having a balanced budget/having a little bit more to spend on social services, wouldn't explain percentages of unemployment in any state that had a sizable population, it only does so in ND because of its population size, and money relatively to population.

This is clearly a case where you are wrong to extrapolate the specific to the general.

[PAULYPOKER]

As for Alaska, much of the oil reserves in Alaska are in ANWR. Additionally, Alaska has been known to have oil for decades/a century, meaning that a large portion of the oil exploitation has already been done, at least to the extent that the communities have matured to the point where there is population there not involved in the oil industry. North Dakota on the other hand has just found much of its oil resources in the last couple of decades, meaning they are still importing workers to meet demand for all of these new oil resources they are trying to exploit.

Alaska has nearly the same population as Nth Dakota.........Fact

Alaska produces nearly twice as much OIL as North Dakota..........Fact

Alaska's Unemployment rate is nearly 3x higher than Nth Dakota...........Fact

Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming have all benefited from a boom in energy prices, with Montana and Wyoming extracting much more gas than North Dakota has. TheBakken oil field stretches across Montana as well as North Dakota, with thegreatest Bakken oil production coming from Elm Coulee Oil Field in Montana. Yet Montana’s unemployment rate, like Alaska’s, is 7.7 percent......................Facts

Are you a politician?

You sure act like one, ignoring facts,carefully constructing words to confuse the public taking full advantage of their ignorance....

[PAULYPOKER]

As for your liquidity argument, notice what the article says, " It participates in loans, provides guarantees, and acts as a sort of mini-Fed for the state." So if this bank is acting as a mini-Fed in effect, what makes you think it is in fact uniquely beneficial to the Fed?

Simple,the Nth Dakota state owned bank has the peoples interests in mind while the Fed has the Central banks Elite owners interests in mind........Fact

[rkelly110]

I take it you don't have any money to put in a bank. Get a job, a girl friend, a bank account, a home, kids and live
happily ever after.

Use the internet to find work, shave, shower, go to an interview, stop a your local restaurant, make goo goo eyes at
the waitress. Get the job, move out, find your own place, have a kid with that waitress, buy a house and live the good life.

Setting goals are good, start making them.

[PAULYPOKER]

I take it you don't have any money to put in a bank. Get a job, a girl friend, a bank account, a home, kids and live
happily ever after.

Use the internet to find work, shave, shower, go to an interview, stop a your local restaurant, make goo goo eyes at
the waitress. Get the job, move out, find your own place, have a kid with that waitress, buy a house and live the good life.

Setting goals are good, start making them.

Does trying to guess my personal life have anything to do with this thread?No

But Cognitive DissonanceAvoidance, Denial, & Rationalization has everything to do with your post........

[rkelly110]

No, it's called living your life. You are kicking your own ass by reading and listing to this stuff.
My philosophy is, what I don't know won't hurt me. What you post might be true or come true.
I'll deal with it if and when it happens.

What state of preparedness are you? I have guns, ammo, solar lights, batteries, radio, water, some food.
and Silver for money. Mine's mostly for winter outages.

[PAULYPOKER]

My philosophy is, what I don't know won't hurt me. What you post might be true or come true.
I'll deal with it if and when it happens.

What is sad about this, the majority of America thinks this way which is the biggest part of the NWO plan..........
**The Boiling Frog Syndrome goes something like this: "If you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, he will jump out. But if you place a frog into a pot of cold water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot tub, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death. Now I'm not sure this really works with frogs, (I couldn't bring my self to find out), but I am certain that it works with people. I believe that we are all sitting in a big pot and the water is beginning to boil.

What state of preparedness are you? I have guns, ammo, solar lights, batteries, radio, water, some food.
and Silver for money. Mine's mostly for winter outages.
As you can now see, sitting and waiting for catastrophe is just welcoming it, so preparedness will help next to nothing,in other words, the only way we the people have a chance is to become aware of truth NOW..........

..................................

[PAULYPOKER]

The booming Bank of North Dakota proves the oil-rich state is red in more ways than one

BY LES LEOPOLD




North Dakota is the very definition of a red state. It voted 58 percent to 39 percent for Romney over Obama, and its statehouse and senate have a total of 104 Republicans and only 47 Democrats. The Republican super-majority is so conservative it recently passed the nation’s most severe anti-abortion resolution – a measure that declares a fertilized human egg has the same right to life as a fully formed person.
But North Dakota is also red in another sense: it fully supports its state-owned Bank of North Dakota (BND), a socialist relic that exists nowhere else in America. Why is financial socialism still alive in North Dakota? Why haven’t the North Dakotan free-market crusaders slain it dead?
Because it works.
In 1919, the Non-Partisan League, a vibrant populist organization, won a majority in the legislature and voted the bank into existence. The goal was to free North Dakota farmers from impoverishing debt dependence on the big banks in the Twin Cities, Chicago and New York. More than 90 years later, this state-owned bank is thriving as it helps the state’s community banks, businesses, consumers and students obtain loans at reasonable rates. It also delivers a handsome profit to its owners — the 700,000 residents of North Dakota. In 2011, the BND provided more than $70 million to the state’s coffers. Extrapolate that profit-per-person to a big state like California and you’re looking at an extra $3.8 billion a year in state revenues that could be used to fund education and infrastructure.
One of America’s Best Kept Secrets
Each time we pay our state and local taxes — and all manner of fees — the state deposits those revenues in a bank. If you’re in any state but North Dakota, nearly all of these deposits end up in Wall Street’s too-big to-fail banks, because those banks are the only entities large enough to handle the load. The vast majority of the nation’s 7,000 community banks are too small to provide the array of cash management services that state and local governments require. We’re talking big bucks; at least $1 trillion of our local tax dollars find their way to Wall Street banks, according Marc Armstrong, executive director of the Public Banking Institute.
So, not only are we, as taxpayers, on the hook for too-big-to-fail Wall Street banks, but we also end up giving our tax dollars to these same banks each and every time we pay a sales tax or property tax or buy a fishing license. In North Dakota, however, all that public revenue runs through its public state bank, which in turn reinvests in the state’s small businesses and public infrastructure via partnerships with 80 small community banks.
How the State Bank Creates Jobs
Banks are supposed to serve as intermediaries that turn our savings and checking deposits into productive loans to businesses and consumers. That’s how jobs are supported and created. But the BND, a state agency, goes one step further. Through its Partnership in Assisting Community Expansion, for example, it provides loans at below-market interest rates to businesses if and only if those businesses create at least one job for every $100,000 loaned. If the $1 trillion that now flows to Wall Street instead were deposited in public state banks in all 50 states using this same approach, up to 10 million new jobs could be created. That would effectively end our destructive unemployment crisis.
No Bailouts for the BND
Banking doesn’t have to be a casino. It doesn’t have to be designed to create gambling opportunities so bank traders and executives can make seven- and eight-figure salaries. As BND president Eric Hardmeyer said in a 2009 Mother Jones interview:We’re a fairly conservative lot up here in the upper Midwest and we didn’t do any subprime lending and we have the ability to get into the derivatives markets and put on swaps and callers and caps and credit default swaps and just chose not to do it, really chose a Warren Buffett mentality—if we don’t understand it, we’re not going to jump into it. And so we’ve avoided all those pitfalls.

As state government employees, BND executives have no incentive to gamble their way toward enormous pay packages. As you can see, the top six BND officers earn a good living, but on Wall Street, cooks and chauffeurs earn more.

• Eric Hardmeyer, President and CEO: $232,500
• Bob Humann, Chief Lending Officer: $135,133
• Tim Porter, Chief Administrative Officer: $122,533
• Joe Herslip, Chief Business Officer: $105,000
• Lori Leingang, Chief Administrative Officer: $105,000
• Wally Erhardt, Director of Student Loans of North Dakota: $91,725

The very existence of a successful BND undermines Wall Street’s claim that in order to attract the best talent big banks need to offer enormous pay packages. Yet somehow, North Dakota is able to find the talent to run one of the soundest banks in the country? The BND is living proof that Wall Street’s rationale for sky-high executive pay is a self-serving fabrication. (For more information on financial inequality please see my latest book, How to Earn a Million Dollars an Hour,Wiley, 2013.)
Wall Street Is Gunning for Bank of North Dakota
As you can well imagine, our financial elites would love to see this successful (socialist!) bank disappear. Its salary structure and local investments makes a mockery of Wall Street’s casino banking system. But the bigger threat comes from the possible spread of this public banking concept to other states. Already, there are 20 or so state legislatures that are exploring state banks. Collectively, more public banks would pose an enormous threat to the $1 trillion in state and local bank deposits that now run through Wall Street.
But elite financiers also stand to lose much more. In the 49 states without a public bank, there’s no safe place to turn for loans to rebuild schools and finance other public infrastructure projects. That creates an enormous opportunity for Wall Street firms to hook localities on expensive bond programs — like capital appreciation bonds, which can lead to repayments equaling 10 times the original loan. Investment bankers and advisers also make enormous fees by selling expensive, high-risk financial schemes to state and local governments (read an investigative report here). But such schemes are useless in North Dakota where the state bank provides the capital the state needs for a fraction of the long-term costs.
Trade Agreements: Wall Street’s Weapon of Mass Destruction
Clearly, from Wall Street’s perspective, the North Dakota bank must go, and all other state efforts to replicate it must be thwarted. Wall Street’s stealth weapon may be lodged within the latest corporate trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which currently is being negotiated in secret. We already know that Wall Street is seeking to remove all tariff restrictions that prevent the U.S. financial services industry from doing business in countries like Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The biggest banks also want the treaty to eliminate “non-tariff” barriers including regulations that create “unfair” competition with state-owned financial enterprises.
Depending on the final language, it is possible that the activities of the Bank of North Dakota could be ruled illegal because “foreign bankers could claim the BND stops them from lending to commercial banks throughout the state,” according to an analysis by Sam Knight in Truthout. How perfect for Wall Street: a foreign bank can be used as a shill to knock out the BND.
The Public Bank Movement
A small but highly dedicated group of financial writers, public finance experts and former bankers have formed the Public Bank Institute to spread the word. Working on a shoestring budget, its president Ellen Brown (author of Web of Debt), and its executive director Marc Armstrong, a former wholesale banker, have become the Johnny Appleseeds of public banking, hopping from state to state to encourage legislatures to explore state-owned banks.
The movement is gathering steam as it holds a major conference on June 2-4 at Dominican University in San Rafael, CA featuring such anti-Wall Street hell raisers as Matt Taibbi and Gar Alperowitz, along with Brigitte Jonsdottir, a member of the Icelandic parliament, and Ellen Brown.
Is America Up For This Fight?
Since the crash, the financial community has largely managed to wriggle off the hook. In fact, fatalism may be replacing activism as we sense that maybe Wall Street is simply too big and too powerful to change. After all, the big banks seem to own Washington, as too-big-to-fail banks are permitted to grow even larger and more invulnerable to prosecution and control.
But this new public banking movement could have legs, especially if it teams up with those fighting for a financial transaction tax (see National Nurses United.) Most Americans remain furious about how financial elites profited from the crisis — before, during and after — while the rest of us pick up the tab. Americans know deep down that Wall Street is the predator and we are the prey.
The state-owned and operated Bank of North Dakota proves that it doesn’t have to be that way. This is the time to fight for public state banking in a big way.
You game?