It is a direct indictment of unregulated free market finance that credit unions - the closest thing to a nationalized bank in this country are doing extremely well compared to commercial banks.
How come Paulson is not investing in credit unions as a way to increase lending instead of pouring money into the Wall St black hole?? http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1853174,00.html -----------------------------------snip Members-only nonprofit credit unions are having their turn in the sun as years of sticking to boring, old-fashioned banking practices — they typically hold the mortgages they make on their own books and only dabble in subprime — put them in a position to grab market share while national banks, auto finance companies, credit-card outfits and private student-loan firms cut back on loans. "In good times, you'd say these guys are much too conservative," says George Hofheimer, chief research officer of the credit-union-focused Filene Research Institute. "But in times like these, it's just what the doctor ordered." Credit unions aren't shy about having money to lend. Speed's outfit, the 126,000-member Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU), has been running TV spots since August and is doubling its ad budget for the fourth quarter. (At times, TDECU has been accused of being too aggressive: community banks, which have also been faring relatively well, and the FDIC loudly objected when one ad painted the entire banking industry as "under a dark cloud.") To meet loan demand, TDECU is borrowing from corporate credit unions and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas, but even then "we may not have enough money to go around," says Speed — especially now that car dealerships, jilted by the finance arms of auto companies, are flooding the credit union with calls. -raghu. -- "We in the industry know that behind every successful screenwriter stands a woman. And behind her stands his wife." _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
