I really like this story in the LA Times about the opening of the Vashon Island branch of Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union (h/t to Occupy Seattle’s Facebook).
The movement has spurred thousands of Americans to move their accounts out of mega-banks, but many have had to resort instead to big regional credit unions. Here, a group of hard-core Vashon activists, already seasoned in anticorporate campaigns, hit on the idea of merging with a small credit union to create a new branch on the island.
That office has managed, in its first year of operation, to enroll an astonishing 16% of the population and collect local deposits of almost $20 million.
“What surprised me about it was how rapidly the community embraced the credit union,” said Rob Harmon, a green economy pioneer who was part of the organizing committee. “We had wild dreams that in the first year $10 million would move. … And in the first year, $17.5 million moved. So we’re 70% above our wildest dreams.”
Last year, 1.3 million people across the U.S. joined credit unions, the lower-fee, not-for-profit alternative to commercial banks — double the rate from 2010. Once relegated to small offices at big companies, credit unions over the last 15 years have taken advantage of relaxed federal regulations to expand their membership.
…
Vashon organizers say the key to their success — a template they hope to share with other communities — was the decision to abandon the capital-intensive process of chartering their own credit union. Instead, they joined a small, existing credit union willing to cede substantial control in exchange for new members and deposits.
Harmon and Moyer were talking one day in 2009 about how to create a coal-free zone on the island. They needed to help people weatherize their homes, but none of the three Wall Street banks on the island wanted to make those kinds of loans except as home equity loans.
With the news of JP Morgan Chase losing $2 Billion in a way that shows they haven’t learned thing one, it’s quite timely.
So…..
Relaxed federal regulations for big banks is baaaaaaadddddddd.
Relaxed federal regulations for credit unions is goooooooodddddddd.
Got it.
@1
As you probably know, credit unions are more tightly regulated than banks. Both the article and Carl’s post say nothing about relaxing regulations on credit unions.
From the article:
A couple whose credit is so bad that a bank won’t give them a credit card balance higher than $300 is able to get a loan through the credit union.
One of the credit union’s board members has a history as a drummer, then a community organizer.
Let’s summarize:
The loans are concentrated on a small geographic region with a high percentage of rich people relative to other areas of King County.
They’ll be counting on rich folks’ money to cover their ass when the idiot loans they make to people who don’t qualify for credit elsewhere go bad.
What a business plan.
Yeah, this will end well.
@ 2
Scroll up:
Once relegated to small offices at big companies, credit unions over the last 15 years have taken advantage of relaxed federal regulations to expand their membership.
To reduce unemployment, let’s give drummers/community organizers jobs SITTING ON THE BOARD OF A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION.
They can learn a lot that way……with other peoples’ money:
Moyer, whose last job before becoming a community organizer was as a drummer, now finds himself sitting on the board of a bank — he got one of Vashon’s seats on the credit union’s governing board.
“I’ll tell you, I’m learning a lot about this whole financial institution thing,” he said.
‘…his whole financial institution thing.’
Let that sink in for a minute, then go rush off and deposit your hard-earned cash there. Go ahead. The government will take care of your refund when the shit hits the fan.
Bob,
At what institution do you do your banking?
Lordy, our trolls just get more and more insipid with each passing day.
@ 6
Whidbey Island Bank. They kept their noses clean during the meltdown and acquired Citybank of Lynnwood and North County Bank in the Skagit area when they went under. A branch 8 blocks from my office now. Another two miles from my home.
Why?
Drummer >> Community organizer >> Financial Institution Director
Community organizer >> Senator >> President
What could go wrong? I guess this dude’s next job is, what, governor?
For my part, I ditched B of A and Chase over twenty years ago for the Peninsula Credit Union. But Bob probably thinks I’m a fool for not trusting my money with Wall Street bankers. When I had a question for Chase about their jacking my credit card interest rate up to 29.95% for no apparent reason, I ended up having to talk to some foreigner working a phone bank in some third-world country who treated me like shit. With my credit union, I’m talking to members of my community.
High school bully, corporate bully, dog bully, president. Yeah, that makes so much more sense.
@ 10
There are untold reasons I think you to be a fool. What you do with your money is not one of them.
The reason they jacked your credit card rate up is probably that you were late on a payment. One reliable thing about you lefties is your inability to admit fault. Personal responsibility is a wholly foreign concept to you.
Funny thing about well-educated foreigners dealing with American deadbeats…… They seem not to like you very much, especially when their command of the English language is better than yours is.
“Foreigners”….. If I were to use that term wouldn’t you accuse me of dog-whistling, Steve? Don’t drop your guard too far. Your bigotry is showing.
@9: Fuck, you’re an idiot.
I’ve been a CU member since forever. I know people who run the place (the board and executive director), people I’ve worked with — engineers, secretaries, welders, machinists — you know, actual community members, regular folks focused on serving the community vice making a profit although they do just fine in that regard.
Jesus was a community organizer, asshole.
Fuck off and die.
@ 13
Ah, yes. It’s on the back of my currency: “In Community Organizer We Trust”.
Avoids all that separation of church and state shit.
Jesus, the dude all of you enlightened types claim doesn’t exist 99+ % of the time, now becomes your defense?
We’ll call this ‘Zotz’s Law’. When a lefty has to invoke Christ in defense of his point, his argument is already lost.
All you’re missing is the plastic red round nose and the big floppy shoes.
@4
Yep, I missed that. I really shouldn’t post before having my morning tea.
If I’m remembering correctly, those rules changed to allow more people to join credit unions, they did change how credit unions are run and credit unions are still more tightly regulated than banks.
Have you seen the list of failed banks? It’s pretty F’ing long. WA’s share of the deal is around 16 banks. Only one credit union has gone down. I think the model’s more than proven it’s self.
http://www.fdic.gov/bank/indiv.....klist.html
As for the drummer turned banker, yeah that sounds kinda stupid. But, having seen what the banking industry’s done over the last decade and who they hired to do it…
@9
Seems to work better than this:
Entitled rich brat -> abuses animals and/or vulnerable humans -> trades on inherited connections/wealth -> runs for President
I’ll take the community organizer any day.
“Fuck off and die.”
I’ll second that.
“The reason they”
You have no clue what the problem with the bank was so you again resort to making shit up.
“with American deadbeats…… ”
Still making shit up.
“Foreigners” Do you have a better word to describe people from a unknown foreign country? Meanwhile, please continue to use “drummer” and “community organizer” in the perjorative.
Fuck off and die, Bob. The sooner the better.
@ 15
16:1 is only relevant if the number of banks relative to the number of credit unions before the failures began was greater than 16:1. I have no interest in checking but I’m guessing that your point is much smaller when you look at relative numbers.
Credit unions now trying to lend a greater percentage of their assets to businesses that can’t qualify elsewhere. They’re trying to expand into areas that have opened up as a result of banks tightening their lending rules.
Lots of info out there. Here’s an older source:
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....50542.html
@ 17
And you know nothing about me but still saw fit to question my honesty yesterday, hypocrite.
Your bank didn’t jack up your rate to a usurious level because you were an angel and you know it. So does everyone else, so you are fooling nobody.
Got a problem with your interest rate? Pay cash. Oh, wait……..
“When a lefty has to invoke Christ in defense of his point, his argument is already lost.”
There is no argument, Bob. All you do is make shit up.
@ 20
Don’t you have a credit card bill to pay?
@19 Yeah, Bob, Wall Street banks are always right. They’ve never made a mistake. Idiot.
Question your honesty? You have none to question. All you do here is make shit up. Tiresome as it is, I call you on it. If you have a problem with that, then you can just fuck off and die, asshole.
@21 No, I don’t credit card payment to make.
Can you even post one comment without resorting to making shit up?
Steve defaults on credit card debt, bank’s shareholders take the loss.
Steve defaults on credit union credit card debt, fellow credit union members take the loss.
Either way, Steve has no problem with it. That iPad isn’t working right anymore, anyway.
Nope! Credit unions and banks operate under different sets of rules. Under their rules, credit unions weren’t allowed to do the sorts of things that banks did to get themselves in trouble.
Gotta go, busy day.
See ya, Michael. Apples to oranges.
I’ve been thinking about something lately. Ok, some people have sexual reassignment surgery. Men who feel like they were born a woman, and women who feel like they were born a man. Then they get an operation to make the body to fit the feeling. I guess my question is, what about animals? For example, what if a male cat is feels like he is a female, what is he supposed to do? Just stay in his male cat body? Should we, as humans, try to scientifically figure out which animals are trapped in the wrong sex’s body, and perform sexual reassignment surgery on them so they can live a happier life?
@ 27
What about just giving them a gender-neutral name, like…..
“Lucky” or “Spoticus”.
Then remove their gonads and let them be whatever they want.
“Steve defaults on credit card debt, bank’s shareholders take the loss.”
Making shit up.
“Steve defaults on credit union credit card debt, fellow credit union members take the loss.”
Making shit up.
“Either way, Steve has no problem with it. That iPad isn’t working right anymore, anyway.”
Making shit up.
Is that all you’ve got, Bob, making shit up? That’s fucking pathetic.
You really know how to pick your friends, Bob.
And yet you birth a goat when I use the word “foreigner” to describe, um, a foreigner.
@ 10 @ 29
Tell us, Steve:
Why did Chase raise your credit card rate to 29.95%?
Is that the rate it reserves for its best customers?
Or did you do something to cause it to happen?
You brought it up as if it happened through no fault of your own.
Clue us in. Enlighten us.
You just birthed a goat because I used the word foreigner, Bob. Does it bother you to discover that you’ve made a natural bond with the racists here who call blacks “niggers”? If you were not to respond with contempt and indignation several magnitudes above your hissy fit over the word “foreigner”, what would that tell us about you?
@ 30
Irrelevant. Yes, there are others, on both sides of the spectrum, who are bigoted.
I was talking about you.
“Foreigner”s. They’re the ones that get the jobs when the companies you don’t like outsource rather than deal with unions, right?
Foreigners with excellent English skills are the ones who have children who perform well in school and then come to this country on special visas and make more than you do, right?
“Foreigners”.
You mean people who are not like us, don’t you, Steve?
Foreigners.
@31 Oh, I see. You’re so terribly disturbed to learn that your new friends are racists that you feel the need go back to telling us how a bank could never, ever make a fucking mistake.
@ 34
So it was bank error? Your rate went from 12ish% to 29.95% because the bank erred?
That’s your story? Big bad Chase picked on liddle widdle Steve by more than doubling his rate for no reason at all?
Right. We’re buying it. All of us. No reason to question that.
““Foreigner”s. They’re the ones that get the jobs when the companies you don’t like outsource rather than deal with unions, right?”
Making shit up.
“Foreigners with excellent English skills are the ones who have children who perform well in school and then come to this country on special visas and make more than you do, right?”
Making shit up.
“You mean people who are not like us, don’t you, Steve?”
You mean like blacks are to your white racist buddies here at HA? No, that’s not what I meant.
“Irrelevant.”
No it isn’t. Why is the word “foreigner”, when used to describe a foreigner, so much more disturbing to you than the use of the word “nigger” by your friends?
It’s also a little known fact that under Obamacare, sexual reassignment surgery for animals like cats and dogs will be covered.
@ 36
“…. some foreigner….. in some third-world country…..”
No, nothing derisive there at all, Steve. You’re an angel. Step right up to the pearly gates.
@35 Anything to avoid talking about how you’re chummy with those here who call blacks niggers, huh?
@38 Chew on this again, Bob.
“Are you talking about the niggers”
Why are you good with that, Bob? Why are you not birthing a goat?
When you let people who are from shit countries into America, yes, you improve the quality of lives for the immigrants, but you also slowly ruin the quality of America itself. Think of it like this. Let’s say you have a large glass of water. And then you plop a teaspoon of shit into the glass. Does it in any way improve the glass of water?
@ 40
You bring up something someone wrote in April of 2009 to deflect from something you wrote an hour ago.
You dropped your mask. You got called on it. You’re flailing to try to get out of it.
First rule of holes, dude.
Done here.
@ 41
STFU.
So you support Wall Street banks over local credit unions, shipping jobs to other countries, and you see no problem with your friends calling blacks “niggers”. Oh, and you have issues with drummers, community organizers, the word “foreigner”, and the term “third-world country”. Good to know, Bob.
@43 Is your friend embarrassing you now, Bob?
Steve, using the word nigger isn’t the most racist thing a person can do. I believe someone who drives past numerous bars with a mostly minority patrons, to get to a white bar in the Montlake neighborhood, is a much more racist act.
“You bring up something someone wrote in April of 2009 to deflect from something you wrote an hour ago.”
No. I saw you birth a goat over the word “foreigner”, Bob. I also saw you chum up to Troll and Puddy, our resident HA racists. So I wanted to see if you’d birth a goat to realize just who you were bonding with here. But you had nothing to say. I’m sure that tells everybody quite a bit about your quality of character, Bob, or lack of same.
@46 I’m just using you to fuck with Bob’s mind.
Don’t worry, Bob, even though your ass has been handed to you, your narcissistic personality disorder will allow you to get through this and you’ll soon preen your 1% self again and declare victory over the commies at HA.
“Done here.”
You’re leaving us? Well then, here’s your ass back. Come on back when you want it handed to you again.
I’m not going to get involved in this love spat, but I gotta say, WTF is a former drummer and community organizer(lol) doing on the board of a financial institution???
That is fucking nuts. I sure as hell wouldn’t let my money anywhere near that place.
Bonus max comment: community organizers? Really? Talk about a lazy, made-up, dipshit occupation. Perfect for scam artists and other dregs.
Banking, done right, is an incredibly boring low profit business. That does not necessarily mean that it is not rewarding to bankers on a personal or professional basis. Boring banking also provides a stable financial framework for the real business of producing things and serving the financial needs of people.
After the financial collapse in the 1930s, a great deal of thought went into creating a regulated systems that would provide banking services to people and businesses, and which would significantly reduce the probability of financial bubbles and the inevitable economic destabilization which results when those bubbles collapse.
In the 1980s a number of things came together which led to the dismantling of that system over the next 30 years and the results were predictable.
I’m sure it is understood and even “left” and “right” can agree that not all banks are equal. So when it comes time for you to deposit your money (which is a loan) in a bank/savings & loan/credit union, you should really ask yourself why would a multinational bank who trades on its own account and which can make or lose billions on that trading really give a shit about you and your million dollar or less account?
BoA, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase, etc.. don’t give a shit about you or your community because what you do will never move the needle.
That little one horse broke down Building and Loan in your local community has quite a bit more riding on your business and serving yours and your community’s needs.
“Bob” is being a trifle simplistic regarding the megabanks’ “late payment penalty” scam, which at times has involved sending out statements timed to arrive only a day or so before payment was due, especially when the due date fell on a Sunday. We finally took the plunge and got rid of our Alaska Airlines Visa card (after over 20 years) when BofA sent us a notice that if we were ever late with a single payment they’d raise our interest to 29% in perpetuity.
On the other hand, smaller, locally-run banks are indeed a decent compromise between staying at the mercy of one of the giants and joinging a credit union, allowing for the possibility that such a bank may at any time be taken over by a larger institution. At present, credit unions appear to have legal protections against that, but if enough people move their dollars there, you can bet your britches the big guys will lobby hard (and successfully) to get the laws changed. Remember S&L’s?
@51,
So what is your point?
Do you think the “Great White Whale” and JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, and their ilk are somehow better qualified to manage your money than drummers and community organizers?
In 2012 after 2009 you really believe that?
Probably you are too young, but way back when banking was understood to be run on the 3-6-3 rule.
Of course one never made nor lost $2 billion running a bank that way.
@53 When has a troll ever offered anything but simplistic thoughts?
Off topic but, a 78′ wave? Incredible. Surfing a 78′ wave? Holy fucking cow!!
http://msn.foxsports.com/other.....ord-051112
@55 Go fuck a cow if you like. Can’t be any worse than trying to ride a 78 foot wave.
These large banks have ceased to be banks because they’ve turned into gambling concerns. They gamble with other folks’ money. If they win, great: they pay themselves nice bonuses and salaries and live large. If they lose, they get government bailouts and pay themselves slightly smaller bonuses and salaries. It’s “heads I win, tails you lose” with the banksters.
Should have let ’em fail, go through bankruptcy and teach ’em a little humility.
@ 57
You sure it’s not with house funds?
In my book using customer deposits to lend to other customers could be looked at as gambling if you are lending to people with dubious credit.
I think the arbitrage and risk-moderation strategies are with house funds. That’s what made MF Global so scandalous – they intermingled the client funds and the house funds. Long Term Capital Management didn’t do that. Bear Sterns didn’t do that. Lehman didn’t do that.
Am I wrong?
@ 57
If the banks should have been allowed to fail, why not also the auto companies? It’s not like there wouldn’t be a GM had a normal bankruptcy been forced.
And Chrysler? Is there a need for Chrysler if it had gone into liquidation?
The auto companies should have been allowed to fail as well. We’d still have GM. Chrysler would be in pieces but some of it would still be around.
Ah, but fewer UAW members to donate to Obama’s re-election campaign had a normal bankruptcy been forced.
@59
I supported the bailouts and still think we made the right call. Where we screwed up is not quickly moving to a system where there’s no longer anything “too big to fail.” Of all the folks who’ve tried to run for POTUS ’12, only Jon Huntsman put forward anything close to a system that moves us away from too big to fail.
Roger Rabbit joke:
Q: what do you call a Obama/Huntsman general election?
A: a Democratic primary.
@ 60
Bush actually just punted on it. He pushed the issue into Obama’s presidency by giving GM and Chrysler temporary loans while they (GM/Chrysler) worked on a turnaround plan that everyone knew would fail.
The Chrysler bailout almost didn’t happen. I’m reading Rattner’s book. The vote, I think, amongst Obama’s inner circle on Chrysler was 4-3. If I recall correctly that means Obama cast the deciding vote because he couldn’t get any of the three ‘No’s to switch their vote and allow him to vote present.
Hat tip for ya Steve… it was leftist pinhead blacks who said blacks can’t be racists especially against whitey!
EPIC FAYLE again Pedophile Steve. Somehow I don’t see you shouting down headless lucy each and every time it appears with it’s 69 different doppelgangers on HA!
Failing again and again for many years here on HA!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA”
The laughter of a psychotic.
The score at the end of the game,
Steve: 237 Republican pedos documented
Self-loather: 3 Democrats, none from this century
Heh. Sucks to be the self-loather.
Said by someone who’s ASS wuz whupped! Only Mel Reynolds was 20th century moron. And you just skipped over Bernie Ward. Must have been a close personal friend eh Pedophile Steve?
Wait for it…
Remember Jamie Dimon who was a big time DUMMOCRAPT slush funder provider until Obummer attacked his JP Morgan money man in 2011.
Just as the HA jackASS ylb for a regurgitation of my entries of the Wall Street Elite for Obummer. You see Jamie Dimon didn’t like Obummer calling him a Wall Street Fat Cat after all the money he sunk into the Obummer campaign.
Didn’t Ron Paul say the only rich person Obummer doesn’t like is one who doesn’t contribute to his campaign?
I take that comment about the drummer back.
If Tagg Romney with NO EXPERIENCE in finance can set up a private equity firm why can’t a drummer sit on a credit union’s board of directors (or whatever)?
1, 3 — Hey Bob, nobody’s stopping you from putting all your money in JP Morgan Chase, if you want to …
My point is that he isnt qualified to sit on the board of a financial institution…and I would be very curious as to how he got there in the first place. I’m sure the back story is quite interesting.
I have an idea: lets have the night manager at burger king do brain surgery..it makes about as much sense.
Seattle Metropolitan Credit Union Board member qualifications.
http://www.smcu.com/home/about/board
1.The Chair of the Board of Directors shall appoint a Nomination and Election Committee no later than the regular board meeting in October. The Board of Directors shall establish the minimum criteria for eligibility.
2.Eligibility – To be eligible for nomination for a position on the Board of Directors or the Supervisory Committee, the candidate must have the following minimum qualifications:
a.Minimum age: 21
b.Membership in SMCU for a minimum of one year or membership in any merged credit union for that same period.
c.All accounts with SMCU (or the merged credit union) in good standing, continuously, for the past year, with no prior losses to the credit union
d.Must pass all screening requirements:
1.To submit a written statement of interest and intent to run prior to midnight, the first working day of December, or such other date as requested by the CEO and approved by the Board.
2.To submit a resume, if one is not on file with SMCU.
3.To pass a background check:
Credit Check;
Employment Verifications for new candidates, if applicable;
Education Verifications for new candidates;
CUMIS background check.
e.A Bachelor’s degree in business, management, or finance or a post-graduate degree related to business, management, public admission, law or some other field the Nomination and Election Committee determines would be of specific benefit to the board of the credit union, or equivalent work experience.
f.Demonstrable education, work experience or volunteer experience related to the business, finance, management or governance of a non-profit organization.
I couldn’t find a single thing about board member qualifications on the Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union site.
I went through Title 208 WAC and couldn’t find anything about minimum qualifications for Board members for any kind of banking insitution.
One running joke among musicians that’s been around for decades has been that drummers are fucking stupid. My own experience is quite different. The three drummers I’ve played in bands with were all extremely creative, even brilliant people. Deeply flawed? Yes. Would I want any of them to be on the Board of my credit union? I don’t think so. I don’t see what they’ve ever done that would have prepared them for those responsibilities.
Yeah. Tell that to Dave Grohl.. After Nirvana, he could have been Tom Petty’s drummer and he decided to do his own thing – Foo Fighters..
Wow what a dumbass decision that was.
@73 One of those drummers I knew suffered one of the most horrific experiences imaginable, the senseless, brutal murder of his teenage daughter. Back when it happened, I read only one article and it had a description of the murder and I decided to read no more. I followed the headlines but that was it. With that I didn’t learn that she was my old friend’s daughter until I Googled his name a couple years ago.
@70
Tagg Romney probably was qualified to sit on a credit unions board when he started his private equity firm with his mommy’s and his daddy’s best friend’s money.
Oops, that should read
For those interested in actual information… Please visit http://CUorganizer.org about the process our group of community leaders went through, and the tools we used. Feel free to download, edit, emulate, or adapt to your community.
Bill Moyer
drummer, activist, community organizer, radical solutionary, father & husband… a member of PSCCU. Honored and proud of it all.
@77
Hey, thanks for posting!
@77,
Thanks, and sorry about the trolls.