We Must Nationalize, Reorganize, and Decentralize the Banks

Two days ago I wrote about introducing a new kind of scale-based antitrust. Before exploring some other structural reforms, I want to encourage people to join a nationwide demonstration of support for some basic principles of structural change in the banking sector.

On Saturday, 60+ demonstrations will be held around the country, demanding structural change in the banking sector. The group organizing the demonstrations, a New Way Forward, started less than a month ago, but is already approaching 10,000 members. A New Way Forward embodies the logic of the most thoughtful economic thinkers in the country, translated into clear, direct language and action.

We/they support a Nationalize, Reorganize, Decentralize platform, pointing to Krugman on the need for temporary nationalization, Simon Johnson on the need for removing current leadership in the banking sector, and Mike Lux on the importance of creating a new, decentralized private market, with new banks run by new people. Any bank that's "too big to fail" means that it's too big to exist in a free market.

I got involved in A New Way Forward a week or so after it started, and its an amazing grassroots organization in a few ways.