Bernanke Fed Must Pay for Post-Sandy Reconstruction

The most effective way to finance the reconstruction of stricken areas in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and other states in the wake of the October 28-29 Superstorm Sandy is to mobilize Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve System to provide cheap, long-term federal credit for the rebuilding.

Hurricane Sandy represented a once in a century natural calamity impacting the lives of 60 million people, and it is simply unacceptable for the Fed to ignore this event and continue to focus exclusively on providing life-support for insolvent money center banks. Here is yet another area in which US national survival depends directly on breaking the political power of the bankers.

The most rapid way to begin reconstruction is for a combination of federal, state, and local government officials, backed up by a mass movement of public opinion, to force Bernanke to open a Post-Sandy Reconstruction Credit Facility capable of providing up to USD one trillion of 0% federal reconstruction loans and bond purchases with maturities between 50 and 100 years through the existing pipelines of the Federal Emergency Management Administration and the Small Business Administration. Federal reconstruction loans can also be channeled through the remaining solvent institutions of the regional banking system, meaning that most of the Wall Street derivatives giants will not be eligible for this role.