Big banks denied entire communities the opportunity to buy homes, start small businesses, and build financial security right here in our City for generations. In response, Ponce Bank was founded in the 1960's to give Puerto Rican New Yorkers the opportunity to build wealth.
Today, alongside @NYCComptroller and @nycfinance, we announced that we are depositing $20 million into Ponce Bank branches in Inwood and the Bronx to directly increase access to capital for working people.
Government should invest directly into people and neighborhoods. So thatâs exactly what weâre doing.
As the AI boom is minting billionaires by the day and the first trillionaires are now coming into view, one thing is becoming clearer and clearer:
The battle between democracy and oligarchy will be the defining battle of the 21st century.
Thatâs how Musk could buy Twitter on a whim for $44 billion in 2022; thatâs how Ellison can buy TikTok, CBS and CNN today; thatâs how billionaires could account for 20% of all political donations in the 2024 federal election cycle, etc., etc.
Extreme wealth is always an extreme power:
The power to stifle competition.
The power to shape public discourse.
The power to influence policymaking.
The power to buy elections.
Those who celebrate @elonmusk's $1 trillion fortune need to be reminded of a simple and vital truth:
That there is a fundamental tension between extreme wealth and the very possibility of democracy.
âDear migrants, before I say any other word to you, I want to bow before your dignity.
âYou are not numbers or case files.
âYou are people â with a family and a home left behind, with dreams that no one has the right to scorn.â â Pope Leo XIV