Thread by @NaliniJensen

1/ "Where was the Federal Reserve in all this? It poured out trillions of dollars in relief, but the funds did not trickle down to the real economy. They flooded up, dramatically increasing the wealth gap. " #wealthgap #WealthTax

2/ "By October 2020, the top 1% of the U.S. population held 30.4% of all household wealth, 15 times that of the bottom 50%, which held just 1.9% of all wealth." #wealthgap
scheerpost.com/2021/03/03/wil…

3/ "The devastation caused by nationwide Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020 has highlighted the inadequacies of the current financial system in serving the public, local businesses, and local governments. Nearly 10 million jobs were lost to the lockdowns, over 100,000 businesses closed "

4/ " over 100,000 businesses closed permanently, and a quarter of the population remains unbanked or underbanked. Over 18 million people are receiving unemployment benefits, and moratoria on rent and home foreclosures are due to expire this spring."

5/ "The creation of the corporate facilities last March marked the first time in history that the Fed would buy corporate debt… The purpose of the corporate facilities was to help companies access debt markets during the pandemic, making it possible to sustain operations..."

6/ "Instead, the facilities resulted in a huge and unnecessary bailout of corporate debt issuers, underwriters and bondholders. This created a further unfair opportunity for large corporations to get even bigger by purchasing competitors with government-subsidized credit."

7/ "North Dakota Leads the Way

What a state can achieve by forming its own bank has been demonstrated in North Dakota. There the nation’s only state-owned bank was formed in 1919 when North Dakota farmers were losing their farms to big out-of-state banks. "

8/ "Bank of North Dakota (BND) is mandated to serve the public interest... has had a stellar return on investment, outperforming even J.P. Morgan Chase and Goldman Sachs. "

9/ "In its 2019 Annual Report, the BND reported its sixteenth consecutive year of record profits, with $169 million in income, just over $7 billion in assets, and a hefty return on investment of 18.6%."

10/ "In the 2020 crisis, North Dakota leading the nation in getting funds into the hands of workers and small businesses. Unemployment benefits were distributed faster than in any other state, and small businesses secured more Payroll Protection Program funds per worker.."