Bernero tells students ‘The American Dream is under siege’

It was so great to see Virg Bernero here! He made a very compelling case that he should be governor – more compelling than most politicians would make.

In terms of economics, I'm not sure I've ever (or at least lately) heard anyone in politics sound so wonk-ish and nerdy as Virg Bernero. Virg is a genius! And yet he comes off like a regular guy – he's someone smart enough and easygoing enough to relate to people and understand what our state needs.

I disagree with Travis Faber, a Vice President of the College Republicans, about the idea of a state bank. It would be a great way to loosen up the credit crunch and pave the way for business growth. North Dakota has a similar program, and you don't hear people there calling it “extremely stupid.”

Bernero is a great candidate – refreshingly honest, a true liberal, and a humble public servant who goes to bat for ordinary people!

Mount Pleasant resident Eric Baerren said Bernero’s strength is his history as a municipal leader.

Baerren said Bernero understands the political games in Lansing and knows how policies implemented affect cities outside of Lansing.

“The government needs to do things that are beyond just Lansing,” Baerren said. “He’s the only one who’s been talking so far about that.”

Baerren is a paid political operative and webmaster of MichiganLiberal.com, which is funded by liberals like George Soros. He also has a business relationship with Bernero, who is a sponsor of his website. Perhaps this should have been included in the story for proper context. What are the odds that the student reporter would just happen to come across a political hack in the audience? She should have stuck to interviewing students.

I have to agree with Travis, Scott. The State Bank of North Dakota was founded as a farm credit union. Not to mention, North Dakota has a state population of approximately 650,000 people. That's a far cry from the nearly 10 million we have here in Michigan. Perhaps the scope of the state bank here in Michigan would be far too Great? Yes, in North Dakota they do enjoy somewhere around a $1 million budget surplus, however, even those proponents of the BND can't cite the Bank as reason for the surplus.
Loosen up the credit crunch? Let's do that through local banks which can lend to local businesses and move small business. Do I really need to mention Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac? And do you think there might be a reason only one of the 50 states actually has a state bank?

Well to start with it’s 1st Vice Chair, not Vice President.

Last night Virg Bernero showed he has absolutely no understanding of sound economic policy. He said that it would be a good idea if “there was a law that forced companies to employ 50% of their work force in America.” Anyone who has any grasp of what international trade relations would tell you that such a law would inevitably lead to the breakdown of international trade, hurting every business in America (and in turn that business's work force) that export goods/products to other countries. The “protectionism” that Virg said “wasn’t such a bad thing,” saw it’s greatest deal of support right before the Great Depression. The protectionist tariff passed in 1930, called the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, is widely credited by economists as a primary, if not the primary, cause of the Great Depression. This protectionist tariff, which caused other countries to place tariffs on American trade goods, decreased American exports by over 30% in a year, bring American manufacturing and farming exports, and the businesses those exports supported, to an almost standstill. That caused massive unemployment and poverty, not the good things Virg promised. In his speech last night Virg said he supported a recent tariff on tires made in China put in place at the request of President Obama, so I can only assume that he would support further tariff increases and laws that will put America’s international trade and economic future in jeopardy.

As for the Bank of Michigan, I really wish they had included everything I said in the article, but it was all summed up when I said it was “extremely stupid”. The idea that our state government, in it’s time of greatest economic hardship, should expand into the banking world is one of the most poorly thought out and reckless policies I have herd in recent years. The fact is that even if we wanted to, our state doesn’t have the money to start a bank because of the out-of-control spending by our current governor (just look at the new state police HQ) and the cost of the state's current bureaucratic departments in Lansing and around the state. Aside from that, creating a state run bank is an “extremely stupid” idea because it would place a government run entity into our free market system. The goal of a Bank of Michigan would not be to make profit, but it would still compete with various other banks, big and small, and credit unions in the state for the business of the people of Michigan. Can anyone say bank failure, Virg obviously hasn’t thought about the ramifications of giving small credit unions and small regional banks, the banks I personally do business with and who operate on very little profit margins, completion from the government. And when that completion causes such small banks to go out of business, who pays for the bank failure, the American tax payer. Such an entity would put thousands of well paid bank workers in Michigan out of work when their banks go bust because they can’t compete with a nonprofit state bank. It would also put even greater stress on every person that had a loan with a bust bank. And for that matter, what happens if the Bank of Michigan goes bust because Virg is forcing them to give out stupid loans? Who pays for that, our broke state government? Bernero said the bankers in South Dakota like the Bank of SD, well that’s because a good majority of bankers in SD work for the Bank of SD. Virg doesn’t realize that SD is a very different state than Michigan. The BSD was started because there weren’t many banks in SD, and farmers in SD couldn’t get loans. In Michigan there is already a bank on every corner. Virg just hasn’t thought this out or he’s as stupid as his idea. Aside from that there is also the extremely strong argument that government has no place conducting itself in the private economic sector. Philosophically Virg is out of touch with both the principals this country was founded upon and the opinions of a majority of the American people. I find it funny that it was Andrew Jackson, the first real democrat to become president, that got the American Government out of the banking business because he thought it was unconstitutional and dangerous.

Travis J. Faber
1st Vice Chair of the College Republicans at CMU

I should probably add that this was a well written article about an event at CMU. As far as people not liking that fact that cm-life talked to Eric Baerren, he had every right to be there and every right to talk to the reporter about Virg. It's called freedom of speech and it's a public event in a public area so anyone could come and say what they wanted to. The reporter talked to me, so you really can't say she was bias. She got view points from both sides and wrote a well rounded news report.

You should probably also add that the state of North Dakota has its own bank, not South Dakota, as you littered throughout your response. You obviously aren't too informed on the issue, that's like someone arguing that South Korea is the Communist state on the Korean Peninsula over and over again… Anyone with knowledge on the issue would stop and say “wait that doesn't sound right.” Nice try in trying to come across as informed, though, it was as close as a conservative could get, I guess.

You should probably also add that the state of North Dakota has its own bank, not South Dakota, as you littered throughout your response. You obviously aren't too informed on the issue, that's like someone arguing that South Korea is the Communist state on the Korean Peninsula over and over again… Anyone with knowledge on the issue would stop and say “wait that doesn't sound right.” Nice try in trying to come across as informed, though, it was as close as a conservative could get, I guess.

Of course no one raised their hand – people have been given the false impression that a nice little college degree is going to land you some comfortable office job that a drone could do, or a job that can be done much faster and efficiently by someone overseas.

The ones who find jobs today are creative entrepreneurs who have a level of work ethic and creativity not taught in colleges.

It's also much more common for students to attend these things sitting in the back of the room trying to not get noticed.

Baloney. You're founded by Soros and the Democratic Party.

What does a state's population have to do with how well a bank like this works? I'm not saying it has no impact; in fact, I would argue that the more people you have in a state, chances are, the more money there will be in the bank to lend out. So if you think ND's bank depends on the state having only 650,000 people, you should back up your argument.

Also, just because only one state has a state bank, doesn't automatically make it bad! Every state is led by politicians – many of whom aren't smart enough to come up with good ideas or bring them to bear in their state.

And as to the idea that banks and credit unions will lend out money to businesses – in theory, yes, but in practice, the credit crunch has forced many banks to not lend out money. As a result, fewer businesses are growing and creating jobs.

Well, the population has a lot to do with the power of the bank and the reach of it's arm. In a state like North Dakota where the population is smaller, the power of the State is not as great simply because of the number of people they impact. And sure, they will have more money to lend out – but where does it come from? Where in our already tight budget do you find room for funding a state bank? And what happens in a wost-case-scenario where the bank fails? The bank would be insured, I assume, by the taxpayers. And since the SOM, unlike the federal government, can't print money or “bail out” ourselves, the entire state population would be on the hook for “Troubled Assets.”

Do you really think no other state legislator has come up with this idea in the past? Out of the thousands across the country? It's simply been voted down in other states because, after getting over how perfect it sounds in theory, it more than likely was discovered that the bank probably wasn't the best idea.

Yes – there is less money being lent out, but why is that necessarily a bad thing? Just because credit isn't moving the way it was before doesn't mean it's broken. Perhaps it would be good for people in this state to only start businesses when they have sufficient capital to do so. Lending money on “looser terms” is never a good idea. And proposing that a government operate like a business is also never a good idea.