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Credit Unions Ask "Now What?" -- Answer: Invest in Cooperatives
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Dan Clore
Dec 1, 2011, 4:30:48 PM12/1/11
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News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/12/credit-unions-ask-invest-cooperatives/
Credit Unions Ask, ‘Now What?’ Answer: Invest in Cooperatives
By Presidio Economics
December 1st, 2011
3p is proud to partner with the Presidio Graduate School’s
Macroeconomics course on a blogging series about “the economics of
sustainability.” This post is part of that series. To follow along,
please click here.
By Amy Johnson
The president and chief executive of the National Association of Federal
Credit Unions (NAFCU), Fred R. Becker Jr., posed an important question
in the Washington Post, “Credit unions reported a surge in membership
after Bank Transfer Day. Now what?”
Anger over big banks’ announced plan to charge for debit card use
combined with the energy behind the Occupy Movement fueled the
successful Move Your Money campaign that culminated on November 5th with
Bank Transfer Day. The campaign resulted in approximately 700,000 new
members depositing $4.5b into credit unions across the country since
September. It’s been estimated that this brings the total assets held by
US credit unions to surpass $1 trillion. While credit unions may have
been a passive participant in the battle between an enraged public and
big Wall Street banks, with this new influx of financial capital and a
membership base exceeding 91 million they are now in a powerful position
to strategically support the new progressive movement for a more
sustainable economy.
The opportunity now exists to better articulate the connection between
credit unions as cooperative businesses owned by the members and the
need for them to invest more heavily in the growing cooperative business
sector. Worker-owned businesses are not only an economically viable
solution, but also a necessary one for addressing the massive wealth
disparity present in our economy. They help build local wealth by
retaining more of their profits within a community. Coops also place a
high value on social capital by creating stable, living wage jobs and
establishing workplaces that value the contributions of all workers.
This business model will be gaining much more international attention
over the next year, thanks to the UN’s 2012 International Year of
Cooperatives campaign that highlights the positive economic
contributions of cooperatives.
Here in the US there is a new generation of worker-owned businesses
bubbling up in communities across the country. Incubators, like Third
Coast Workers for Cooperation and Green Worker Cooperatives, are well
underway in training the new generation of entrepreneurs. But for many
of these new businesses, securing financial capital is often one of the
hardest challenges. This is where credit unions, as fellow cooperative
businesses, can become increasingly valuable tools in helping create a
truly sustainable economic future.
Exactly as Becker states, credit unions have indeed found themselves in
a “now what?” moment. His proposal to mobilize the membership to demand
passage of Senate bill 509, which would increase the small business
lending cap from 12 percent to 27.5 percent, and reform outdated
restrictions on credit unions is a critical first step. As mentioned in
a prior Triple Pundit post, without increasing the lending limit, credit
unions are severely limited in terms of the amount of financial capital
they can invest and level of social impact they can have. And with this
recent influx of members and capital, passage of S509 becomes even more
essential.
But along with this policy fight, there is a window of opportunity to
begin envisioning new ways to channel financial capital into
cooperatively owned social enterprises. There is a new generation of
entrepreneurs taking responsibility for creating the innovative business
solutions needed to solve the environmental, social, and economic
challenges facing our country. And they will be their own bosses along
the way. As a credit union member, this is how I would like my money
invested.
–
Amy Johnson is a Masters of Public Administration candidate at Presidio
Graduate School focused on the design of public policies that support
and scale the worker-cooperative movement. She tweets about all things
co-op @makeitobsolete and can be reached at amy.j...@presidioedu.org
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/12/credit-unions-ask-invest-cooperatives/
Credit Unions Ask, ‘Now What?’ Answer: Invest in Cooperatives
By Presidio Economics
December 1st, 2011
3p is proud to partner with the Presidio Graduate School’s
Macroeconomics course on a blogging series about “the economics of
sustainability.” This post is part of that series. To follow along,
please click here.
By Amy Johnson
The president and chief executive of the National Association of Federal
Credit Unions (NAFCU), Fred R. Becker Jr., posed an important question
in the Washington Post, “Credit unions reported a surge in membership
after Bank Transfer Day. Now what?”
Anger over big banks’ announced plan to charge for debit card use
combined with the energy behind the Occupy Movement fueled the
successful Move Your Money campaign that culminated on November 5th with
Bank Transfer Day. The campaign resulted in approximately 700,000 new
members depositing $4.5b into credit unions across the country since
September. It’s been estimated that this brings the total assets held by
US credit unions to surpass $1 trillion. While credit unions may have
been a passive participant in the battle between an enraged public and
big Wall Street banks, with this new influx of financial capital and a
membership base exceeding 91 million they are now in a powerful position
to strategically support the new progressive movement for a more
sustainable economy.
The opportunity now exists to better articulate the connection between
credit unions as cooperative businesses owned by the members and the
need for them to invest more heavily in the growing cooperative business
sector. Worker-owned businesses are not only an economically viable
solution, but also a necessary one for addressing the massive wealth
disparity present in our economy. They help build local wealth by
retaining more of their profits within a community. Coops also place a
high value on social capital by creating stable, living wage jobs and
establishing workplaces that value the contributions of all workers.
This business model will be gaining much more international attention
over the next year, thanks to the UN’s 2012 International Year of
Cooperatives campaign that highlights the positive economic
contributions of cooperatives.
Here in the US there is a new generation of worker-owned businesses
bubbling up in communities across the country. Incubators, like Third
Coast Workers for Cooperation and Green Worker Cooperatives, are well
underway in training the new generation of entrepreneurs. But for many
of these new businesses, securing financial capital is often one of the
hardest challenges. This is where credit unions, as fellow cooperative
businesses, can become increasingly valuable tools in helping create a
truly sustainable economic future.
Exactly as Becker states, credit unions have indeed found themselves in
a “now what?” moment. His proposal to mobilize the membership to demand
passage of Senate bill 509, which would increase the small business
lending cap from 12 percent to 27.5 percent, and reform outdated
restrictions on credit unions is a critical first step. As mentioned in
a prior Triple Pundit post, without increasing the lending limit, credit
unions are severely limited in terms of the amount of financial capital
they can invest and level of social impact they can have. And with this
recent influx of members and capital, passage of S509 becomes even more
essential.
But along with this policy fight, there is a window of opportunity to
begin envisioning new ways to channel financial capital into
cooperatively owned social enterprises. There is a new generation of
entrepreneurs taking responsibility for creating the innovative business
solutions needed to solve the environmental, social, and economic
challenges facing our country. And they will be their own bosses along
the way. As a credit union member, this is how I would like my money
invested.
–
Amy Johnson is a Masters of Public Administration candidate at Presidio
Graduate School focused on the design of public policies that support
and scale the worker-cooperative movement. She tweets about all things
co-op @makeitobsolete and can be reached at amy.j...@presidioedu.org
--
Dan Clore
New book: _Weird Words: A Lovecraftian Lexicon_:
http://tinyurl.com/yd3bxkw
My collected fiction: _The Unspeakable and Others_
http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/the-unspeakable-and-others/6124911
Lord Weÿrdgliffe & Necronomicon Page:
http://tinyurl.com/292yz9
News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo
"From the point of view of the defense of our society,
there only exists one danger -- that workers succeed in
speaking to each other about their condition and their
aspirations _without intermediaries_."
--Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti), _The Real Report on
the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy_
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