By Girard Miller, includes “… It turns out that the capital markets, big data, artificial intelligence and techno-wizardry are filling in many of the niches that supposedly cry out for public banks. But first, there are two other strategic public policy alternatives of note: ‘linked deposits’ and using pension-fund capital for nonbank lending, or ‘shadow banking’ as it’s termed by its critics. … Meanwhile, with interest rates at record low levels, public pension funds have been searching everywhere for ways to get a better return on their fixed-income capital allocations. …”