In Shades of the 2008 Financial Crisis Murphy Administration Pushes State Bank

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, former Goldman Sachs Executive, Gov. Phil Murphy is planning to sign an executive order that will create a 14-member “implementation board” to advance his goal of establishing a public bank in New Jersey. The basic premise of such an institution is to hold the millions of dollars in taxpayer deposits that are normally kept in commercial banks and leverage them instead to serve some sort of public purpose. What could possibly go wrong with that?

In a huge move toward socialism the ethically challenged and fiscally incompetent Murphy Administration   will set up a new board will be led by Marlene Caride, a former state lawmaker who now serves as Murphy’s commissioner of Banking and Insurance, according to information provided by the governor’s office ahead of a planned Wednesday 11 a.m. announcement in Newark. The panel’s other members will come from both the administration and the public, and it will hold at least three public meetings, according to the governor’s office.

In shades of the 2008 financial crisis advocates of public banks say they can also provide borrowers with fairer interest rates and other favorable lending terms because there’s no need to charge high fees to fund things like large executive bonuses or to pump up shareholder profits.

Obviously, concerns have been raised that a public bank would take business away from the state’s banking industry and also create a license to steal, massive corruption and undue political influence all hallmarks of New Jersey politics.  There is also the issue of customers, who in their right mind would; open an account in a bank run by the state of New Jersey with its huge public pension debt and record of fiscal irresponsibility?