Sunday, December 18, 2011

Objectivist Party Governing Board Terminates Membership Of Carl Person For Exhibiting Socialist Tendencies

On December 15, 2011, the Governing Board of the Objectivist Party voted unanimously to terminate the membership of Carl Person for exhibiting socialist tendencies in his campaign to obtain the Libertarian Party's Presidential Nomination in 2012.

Carl Person recently issued a Press Release calling for the creation of government owned State Banks, which read as follows:

What we need in the U.S. (and perhaps the rest of the world), is competition for the commercial banking system, so that the banking activities can continue even if one or more of the largest banks is/are required to go through bankruptcy.

This can and should be done by encouraging every state, every major city, and many towns, villages and municipalities to create “North Dakota type state banks” for themselves, to be owned by the government (directly or indirectly) or in the case of city and local “state banks” by the local government or by local shareholders.

You may not remember but the federal statute (other than the 1913 Federal Reserve Act) that started this country on its banking decline was the elimination of laws which prohibited multi-state branch banking in the United States. States during the 1970’s and 1980’s passed statutes permitting the acquisition of local banks by out of-state banks or bank holding companies. Then, in the 1980’s, the Federal Bank Holding Company Act was enacted (called the “Douglas Amendment”) which permitted acquisition of local banks by out-of-state banks if state law governing the local bank permitted such acquisition. The Douglas Amendment was repealed in 1994 (effective 9/29/95) by the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994, and acquisitions were permitted under federal law regardless of state law. The major banks then expanded with branches into every state and wiped out the local commercial banks.

With the nose of the camel already under the nation’s banking tent, the camel and its owners then spent enough money to encourage a money-hungry Congress in 1999 to rescind the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, which thereafter allowed the camel to poke its nose into the more profitable (but risky business) of creating all sorts of esoteric investments, which has put the U.S. and world into its present financial crisis.

The North Dakota State Bank, for those of you who have not been paying attention, is owned by North Dakota and has the same banking privileges as any other commercial bank, which essentially is to create money out of thin air (at no interest cost) to lend to borrowers. North Dakota has disciplined itself to lend money at about 3% interest to local farmers, manufacturers, green-type companies and others under appropriate banking conditions, which has enabled North Dakota to be the only state of the 50 which doesn’t have an economic crisis.

North Dakota requires that all money paid to North Dakota be deposited in its state bank, which creates an amount that can be lent by the bank of almost 10 times the amount of average deposits in the bank.

Businesses can borrow money without having to pay usurious rates of interest, and small business is better able to expand and create jobs.

There is no reason that a “state bank” can’t be created at the city, county, town, village or municipality level, provided there is compliance with laws that may prohibit the activities if done directly, such as in New York State where the state and local governments are not allowed to lend money to anyone. In cases such as this, the bank should be set up to avoid any such laws, probably through a non-profit organization under state or local control.

These state banks should not be allowed to merge with out-of-state banks or to set up out-of-state branches (to stop at the outset any effort to have the state banks get involved in multi-state bank branching followed by bank mergers and “too big to fail” status).

The current complaint that businesses are not able to obtain bank loans would be addressed through the development of a state banking system. Usury would be eliminated. Small business would be enhanced and millions of new jobs would be created as a result. Also, there would be competition for the banks that are too big to fail.
 
Dallwyn Merck, speaking on behalf of the Governing Board of the Objectivist Party, said:
 
"After Carl Person came out in favor of the creation of government owned State Banks and criticized the repeal of laws governing banks and financial institutions, it became clear to us he lied about his alleged ideological conversion to Objectivism and was, in fact, still firmly rooted is his socialist oriented Green Party past. When the Governing Board of the Objectivist Party recognized this fact, it had no choice but to terminate his membership.

When Carl Person's membership was initially approved, he stated his strong commitment to the free market and to an end to government regulation yet his recent support for the creation of government owned State Banks shows he is not philosophically either an Objectivist or a Libertarian but is, in fact, ideologically Socialist Green.

After Carl Person obtained the nomination of the Libertarian Party for New York State Attorney General in 2010, he attended the Green Party State Convention and sought their nomination as well. In 2006, Mr. Person also sought the nomination of the Green Party for New York State Attorney General. In that race, he took the following stands on issues for which news releases were sent out:

Identify and deal with monopolies existing in NYS or any political subdivisions

Investigate legality of and possibilities for enjoining corporate downsizing in NYS

Require financial and other corporations to deal honestly with their customers

Enforce NY’s antitrust statute to stop illegal monopolies from overcharging New Yorkers

Consider reinstating limits on the life of corporations and require liquidation when reaching certain size

Assist towns and villages to set up $1/hour equivalency colleges (i.e., $500/year tuition)

Regulate vocational programs the same way as India’s world-class Technical Institutes

Help towns and villages set up neighborhood, low-profit casinos for seniors and others

Assist cooperating towns and villages in providing healthcare coverage to all their residents

Investigate and establish new-store policy for Wal-Mart and other big box retailers

Recover lost benefits and taxes from employers that move jobs outside of NYS

Require major corporations to pay their fair share of taxes to NYS

It must be very difficult for Carl Person to be seeking the support of Libertarian Party delegates when his gut-level ideological inclinations and tendencies are so solidly socialist-oriented. It is clear to me that if the light shines in just the right way on Carl Person, you can see a Green hue emanating from him, no matter what ideological suit he happens to be wearing at the time."

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