HF 1075

as introduced - 90th Legislature (2017 - 2018) Posted on 02/13/2017 12:06pm

A resolution
urging Congress and the President of the United States to adopt an "American Recovery"
program.

WHEREAS, an impending financial crisis, typified by the improprieties committed by Wells
Fargo, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and other "too big to fail" banks is an
economic concern; these banks still hold a $250 trillion derivatives bubble, and the 2008 derivatives
meltdown set off that financial collapse; and

WHEREAS, a collapse of our industry and infrastructure underlies these financial crises;
U.S. GDP is growing at an anemic 1-2 percent per year for the past eight years, and productivity
has been increasing at an equally bad 0.5 percent per year, leading to cutbacks of productive jobs
around the nation and over 7,000 workers that have lost their jobs in the Iron Range in Minnesota,
in one example; and

WHEREAS, a durable recovery will require adoption of national credit banking policies as
was done by Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt;
this program of federal credit to industry, states, and cities built the industry and agriculture of our
nation; credit can be made available for the creation of productive jobs in infrastructure,
manufacturing, and high technology projects, thus creating mass employment for our unemployed
and underemployed workforce, especially young people; NOW, THEREFORE,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that it urges the Congress
of the United States to immediately adopt this "American Recovery" program:

1. Restore the provisions of the Glass-Steagall Act, and pass HR 381 in the U.S. House of
Representatives and S1709 in the U.S. Senate, which aim to immediately restore the separation of
investment and commercial banking; Glass-Steagall was law for 66 years and prevented banking
crises like the one experienced in 2008. Four Minnesota Congresspeople are cosponsoring HR 381
in the U.S. House. Glass-Steagall was adopted on the platforms of both political parties in 2016.

2. Return to a national banking and a federal credit system, modeled on the principles of
Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States and John Quincy Adams' Second Bank of
the United States, which built all the infrastructure of the nation for the first 40 years; it was
reinstituted as Abraham Lincoln's National Banking-Greenback policy, that built everything from
railroads to steel mills; the same credit policy was utilized in Franklin Roosevelt's Reconstruction
Finance Corporation (RFC), which financed the gigantic New Deal infrastructure program; the
Works Progress Administration, which in Minneapolis alone built 313,000 feet of sewers,
reconditioned 113 public schools, and paved 60 miles of roads; the Commodity Credit Corporation,
created by the RFC, loaned millions of dollars to Minnesota farmers to save their operations during
the Depression. A new national bank, capitalized at $1-2 trillion of not taxpayer money, must be
immediately created to fund the new infrastructure programs.

3. Use the federal credit system to build a modern network of high-speed rail, power generating
systems, and water projects, such as those urgently needed in the Southwest and cities like Flint,
Michigan. Minnesota can be a national hub for high-speed rail, both passenger and freight, and this
can spark a real revival in the state's steel and iron ore industries. We can also create a multistate
flood control program for the states bordering the Mississippi River, modeled on the Tennessee
Valley Authority, to end the chronic flooding in the region.

4. Launch a program to rebuild our space program to put a permanent manned colony on the
Moon, explore the solar system, and inspire future generations; and a program to develop nuclear
fusion. The University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy has been heavily involved
in these projects already.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota is directed
to prepare copies of this memorial and transmit them to Minnesota's Senators and Representatives
in Congress and the President of the United States.