Episode

1/14 Mehrsa Baradaran: How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy

January 14, 2016

Mehrsa Baradaran a Professor at the University of Georgia Law School and author of the new book How the Other Half Banks: Exclusion, Exploitation, and the Threat to Democracy explains the history of the banking sector in America and the split between Hamilton and Jefferson. (11:50)

-The change in banking beginning in the early 1980’s. Community banks and the shifting realities of banking for the poor. Why Hamilton and Jefferson were both right about banking. The New Deal’s strict banking codes and the lack of financial crises for decades following their implementation. Banking deregulation under the Reagan and Thatcher conservative movements. Obama’s “standing between the banks and the pitchforks” and the lack of a push for fundamental change following 2008. The continuity of financial policy under Bush and Obama. (22:20)

-The fundamental inequality between the “banked” and “unbanked.” The huge subsidy that banks receive from the federal insurance. The logic of Post Office banking. How the credit works and how it works for postal banking. Why being in debt isn’t a moral failing. How the poor are left to pure market credit like payday loans and the big banks are federally insured, despite bank failings being far more disastrous. Small credit for the poor meaning the difference between solvency and insolvency. (27:40)

-How postal banking would work in practice. The advantages of postal banking v. payday loans. Where the concept of postal banking has been raised politically. Why Postal Banking is far from radical. (37:50)

On The Fun Half: The military is socialist. The origin story of Jimmy Sullivan. Will Bernie Sanders win Iowa and New Hampshire. Al Jazeera shuts down and Peyton Manning makes a lame joke. The Duck Dynasty guy endorses Ted Cruz. Why the Chelsea Clinton attack on Single Payer healthcare helps Bernie Sanders, how Bernie can campaign better and your calls and IMs.

Members make the Majority Report possible. Please join us by becoming a MEMBER. You can also show your support by clicking thru to the DONATE button for a one-time donation. Thanks!

Past Episodes

It's Hump Day on The Majority Report On today's program: The Trump administration still cannot explain the reasoning for this war in Iran or if it's a war at all. This confusion comes after Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that the timing of U.S. strikes was driven by ...
It's News Day Tuesday on The Majority Report On today's program: CNN airs a compilation of several members of the Trump administration and GOP politicians contradicting themselves on whether or not we are at "war" with Iran. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says that the U.S. struck Iran ...
It's Fun Day Monday on The Majority Report On today's program: Trump announces strikes on Iran and says that Americans will die as it often happens in war. An Omani foreign minister, Badr Albusaidi, is shedding light on negotiations involving Kushner, Witkoff, and Iran. According to the ...