The Future of Challenges to the Alaskan Public School Funding Scheme After State v. Ketchikan

In 2013, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough initiated a challenge to the Alaska public education funding scheme by paying its required local contribution (RLC) to its school district under protest. The Borough subsequently filed a lawsuit against the State of Alaska in 2014. This Note discusses the supreme court’s constitutional analysis of the RLC in State v. Ketchikan. Despite extensive discussion of the RLC in the context of the Alaska Constitution’s Dedicated Funds Clause, the court failed to sufficiently analyze the RLC (a critical component of public school funding) in the context of the state’s responsibility for education—a duty rooted in the Public Schools Clause. This Note will argue that, unlike the challenge to the RLC under the Dedicated Funds Clause, a successful challenge to the RLC under the Public Schools Clause is a possibility. To prevent a hasty legislative response, the State should consider alternative funding schemes less reliant on RLCs before a court order demands it do so, particularly given the disparities in local contributions that are not necessarily proportional to borough revenues as well as the increased criticism of the RLC after State v. Ketchikan

A Jury of One’s Peers : Felon Jury Exclusion and Racial Inequality in Georgia Courts

African-Americans are overrepresented in felony convictions and, thus, more likely to be excluded from jury service. This study examines the potential impact of felon jury exclusion on the proportion of African-Americans that remain eligible for jury service. Results indicate that felon jury exclusion dramatically reduces the pool of eligible African-Americans statewide by nearly one-third. Furthermore, the level of exclusion for all groups is concentrated in areas with higher African-American populations. When limiting the analysis to African-Americans, however, counties with low African-American populations tend to have the highest levels of African-American exclusion. OLS regression models support the notion that the concentration of African-Americans at the county level is a significant factor in all three model specifications. The nature of this relationship, however, changes dramatically across the models

Have acquisitions of failed banks increased the concentration of U.S. banking markets?

During 2007-10, failures eliminated 318 U.S. commercial banks and savings institutions, about 4 percent of the total number of banks operating at the end of 2006. The assets and deposits of many failed banks were acquired by institutions that already had offices in markets served by the failed banks. This article investigates the impact of in-market acquisitions of failed banks on the concentration of local U.S. banking markets. Most banks that failed during 2007-10 were small, and their acquisitions generally had little impact on market concentration. Acquisitions of larger banks that failed, such as the acquisition of Washington Mutual Bank by JPMorgan Chase Bank, also had only limited impact on the concentration of most banking markets. Among large metropolitan statistical area markets, the Houston and New York City banking markets were most affected by the acquisition of Washington Mutual, but these markets remained relatively unconcentrated after the acquisition. Hence, the article finds that except for a few rural banking markets, acquisitions of failed banks by in-market competitors generally had only a small impact on market concentration.Bank failures ; Bank mergers ; Banking market

Regulation and bank failures: new evidence from the agricultural collapse of the 1920's

This article examines the contribution of government policies to the high number of bank failures in the United States during the l920s. I consider the state of Kansas, which had a system of voluntary deposit insurance and where branch banking was strictly prohibited, and find that bank failure rates were highest in counties suffering the greatest agricultural distress and where deposit insurance system membership was the highest. The evidence for Kansas illustrates how prohibitions on branch banking caused unit banks to be especially susceptible to local economic shocks, and suggests that, despite regulations to limit risktaking, deposit insurance caused more bank failures than would have occurred otherwise.Deposit insurance ; Bank failures ; Banks and banking - History ; Branch banks

Replacement windows: new credit programs at the discount window

Discount window

Why no business loan growth?

Commercial loans

When will business lending pick up?

The recent declines in tightening of lending standards suggest that business lending may be poised for a rebound.Bank loans ; Commercial loans

Another window: the term auction facility

Monetary policy ; Federal funds rate

Government policy and banking instability: "overbanking" in the 1920s

Excess capacity, or “overbanking,” was cited by contemporaries as leading cause of bank failure during the 1920s. Many states that had high numbers of banks per capita in 1920 had high bank failure rates subsequently. This article finds that the number of banks per capita was highest in states that provided deposit insurance, set low minimum capital requirements, and restricted branching. Banks per capita declined the most over the 1920s in states where branching expanded, and in those suffering high failure rates because of falling incomes or instability caused by deposit insurance. Deposit insurance and the relative dominance of agriculture also explain the composition of state banking systems between state and federally chartered institutions.Bank failures ; Deposit insurance

Seasonal accommodation and the financial crises of the Great Depression: did the Fed "furnish an elastic currency?"

Depressions ; Federal Reserve System - History ; Seasonal variations (Economics) ; Financial crises