On October 27, the NIB Coalition conducted a pre-election Zoom town hall featuring Public Banking Institute Chair Ellen Brown, IMF Senior Economist Alphecca Muttardy and former Assistant Speaker of the New York Assembly Felix Oritz, entitled “How to Beat Inflation and Recession: Build Industry, Create the National Infrastructure Bank.”

The forum presented the real story of the upcoming mid-term election which is being played out off-camera. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell and the Fed Board of Governors are relentlessly raising interest rates, with little concern for the fallout. They are driving the country towards an economic recession or worse. This reckless policy is running the risk of blowing up the financial system, by possibly detonating a disintegration of the mostly worthless financial paper they themselves created. The recent collapse of the British pound, and the government, in a matter of days, might be a sign of things to come.

The forum participants laid out the positive side of this crisis by showing how support for an American industrial build-up and the National Infrastructure Bank Act, HR3339, is expanding. They detailed how discussions of reshoring American production are making their way into the public discourse, and that the $5 trillion National Infrastructure Bank (NIB) has the financial heft to drive a recovery led by infrastructure construction. The NIB will hire the millions of people Jerome Powell plans to kick off their jobs. It will spark a larger “Buy America” revival. A raft of recent Op-eds, interviews, and paid media showed how the NIB is raising awareness. At time same time, more elected bodies of government are endorsing the Congressional bill. 

Nobody knows how the elections will turn out, but the forum participants made clear that the campaign for the National Infrastructure Bank will continue on. A new congressional bill will be introduced in 2023, which will give the Congress and the country one more opportunity to turn this onrushing recession into an economy that will focus its firepower on manufacturing, high-paying jobs,

and building infrastructure, and one that will work for everyone.

Let your friends and colleagues know that there is a way out of this economic mess and that we have a movement to make it happen.

Speakers: 

Alphecca Muttardy, former Senior Economist, International Monetary Fund, Fairfax, Va

Ellen Brown, Founder and Chair, Public Banking Institute, Los Angeles, Ca

Asm. Felix Ortiz, former Assistant Speaker New York Assembly, Albany, NY

Sen. William Tallman, New Mexico Senate, Albuquerque, NM

Gayle McLaughlin, City Council member and former Mayor, Richmond, Ca

Walt McRee, Chair Emeritus, and Senior Advisor, Public Banking Institute, Princeton, NJ

Moderator: Robert Lynn, Organizer and Political Director United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 50, Toledo, Oh