[lbo-talk] Money is money

[ken hanly]

 At least in theory their is a difference in governance of banks and credit unions. The board of directors of corporations is elected on the basis of shares held whereas with credit unions there is one vote per member no matter how many shares that you have. The profit (surplus) is returned to the members. For example there may be rebates on loan interest. If there is a dividend from a bank it will be on a per share basis.
   Larger credit unions in my experience often seem more interested in growing bigger etc. rather than serving their members and at least in Canada some of the larger credit unions have little better services and fees than banks. I belong to two credit unions. The one is a merger of  three small town credit unions the other is in a small city Brandon. Both have comparable fees and services. I was surprised I was able to use the CU debit cards in the Philippines with no problem at all. For some reason one credit union had a much lower fee for use of the card there than did the other. But sometimes that may be offset by differences in exchange rates charged.

Cheers, ken
 

________________________________
From: Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com>
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Sent: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 7:39:29 PM
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Money is money

On Nov 8, 2011, at 1:30 PM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:


> 1) If the problem is political, there is some political consciousness changing as a result of people deciding to move the money to a place where they imagine there's more local control.

But one of my points is exactly the opposite: the small banks and credit unions already have more money than they know what to do with, and will put thee new influx into Treasuries and GNMAs.


> That local control might be an illusion, but the fact of (sor far) 4.5 billion dollars being moved around is not an illusion,

$4.5 billion is trivial. I'm looking forward to seeing some real numbers, and not just the claims of advocates, though it's going to take another 6 or 8 months before we know.


> and it's just the beginning. If it proves not to be a game changer, it might be the first step of the many steps involved in people realizing that they can actually play more of a role in the allocation of resources. Like OWS, it moves the center of gravity from "them" to "us." A good thing. 

Individual decisions can't cut it. Finance needs to be politically regulated.


> 2) Money might be money, but it still makes a difference in whose pockets it is. If I understanding accounting, the amount of leverage a bank can have depends upon deposits. The smaller the deposits, the smaller the leverage. There is then the possibility that decreasing that leverage will decrease the amount of speculation that goes on and also the amount of credibility/legitimacy capitalist banking enjoys.

Do you think that if small institutions get big they will still act like they did before?

Doug
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