SR2439 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR2439 LRB099 24099 MST 51751 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The prices of commodities - from oil and copper to coffee and corn - have declined by 10-70% per commodity over the past year as measured in the Dow Jones and Bloomberg Commodity Indices; the price of oil has fallen 70%; this price collapse is now creating a new crisis; and

WHEREAS, The collapse of commodity prices is the new "subprime mortgage" crisis of 2016; the commodities and their related financial paper are tied to a $300 trillion derivatives bubble in the major banks and other companies in the U.S., and far more internationally; it was the derivatives meltdown that set off the 2008 financial collapse; and

WHEREAS, This new financial crisis is being driven by a collapse of our industry and infrastructure; November and December, 2015, U.S. Commerce Department durable goods orders fell by 1.1% and 5.1% respectively; mass layoffs are increasing, highlighted by the announcement of 10,000 layoffs at Caterpillar and 200,000 layoffs in the oil fields; the Institute for Supply Management Manufacturing Index has contracted for 4 straight months nationwide; and

WHEREAS, A return to a durable recovery will require adoption of national credit and national banking policies as was done by Alexander Hamilton, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy; the program of federal credit to industry, states and cities built the industry and agriculture of our nation; and

WHEREAS, National credit, under this Constitutional program, can be made available for the creation of productive jobs in infrastructure, manufacturing, and high technology projects, thus creating mass employment for our now heavily unemployed and underemployed workforce, especially young people; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we urge the United States Congress to immediately adopt the "American Recovery" program by doing the following:

1) Restore the provisions of the Glass Steagall Act, and pass HR. 381 in the U.S. House of Representatives and S. 1709 in the U.S. Senate, which aim to immediately restore the separation of investment and commercial banking; Glass-Steagall in the U.S. House has 4 Illinois Congresspersons co-sponsoring, and was law for 66 years; it prevented banking crises like the one experienced in 2008;

2) Return to a national banking and a federal credit system, modeled on the principles of Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, which built all the infrastructure of the nation for the first 40 years; it was reinstituted as Illinois native son Abraham Lincoln's National Banking-Greenback policy that built everything from railroads to steel mills; Lincoln was the architect of the Transcontinental Rail System that built America, and as a State Legislator he was a leading sponsor of internal improvements and water projects here in Illinois; nationally, Lincoln was a leading advocate for a new National Bank; the same credit policy was embodied in Franklin Roosevelt's Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which financed the New Deal infrastructure program; for example the Works Progress Administration was financed by RFC and employed tens of thousands of Chicagoans of all ethnic backgrounds in productive jobs; Ronald Reagan's father, Jack, was the director of the Works Progress Administration in Peoria;

3) Use the federal credit system to build a modern network of high speed rail, power generating systems, water projects, such as those urgently needed in the Southwest and cities like Flint, Michigan; Chicago; Philadelphia; and others nationwide; and other critical programs; and

4) Launch a program to rebuild our space program to put a permanent manned colony on the Moon and explore the solar system, and develop a program to create nuclear fusion, to finally solve the energy needs of the nation and the planet; the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is actively involved in fusion research; and be it further

RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be delivered to President Barack Obama, U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and all members of the Illinois Congressional Delegation.