Economy prompts fresh look at North Dakota's "socialist" bank

Money people have in the bank is supposed to go to overdraft fees, service fees, and 30% interest rates on credit cards. What is all this putting-money-in-the-bank-and-having-it-accrue-interest-for-us-stuff? Pinko!




BISMARCK, N.D. — It has no automatic tellers or drive-up windows, doesn't issue credit cards, and tends only a few thousand checking and savings accounts. Its only location is a glass, steamboat-shaped headquarters near the Missouri River, where the business moved from its original 1919 home in a former auto assembly plant.

The Bank of North Dakota — the nation's only state-owned bank — might seem to be a relic. It was the brainchild of a failed flax farmer and one-time Socialist Party organizer during World War I.

But now officials in other states are wondering if it is helping North Dakota sail through the national recession.

Gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Oregon and a Washington state legislator are advocating the creation of state-owned banks in those states. A report prepared for a Vermont House committee last month said the idea had "considerable merit." Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore promotes the bank on his Web site.

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