The Stock Market Above 16,000....

"November.  This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months in which to speculate in stocks.  The others are July, January, September, April, October, May, March, June, December, August, and February."

- Mark Twain

At Thanksgiving...

THANK YOU FOR:

"The food before us,
The friends beside us, 
And,(most especially)...

 The love between us."

                                        - Amen

Have TBTFs Become Titanic?...

"The Unsinkable Folly Bound"?

"ASSETS OF THE SIX LARGEST U.S. BANKS ARE UP BY 37% OVER FIVE YEARS AGO.  WHAT HAPPENED ?"

(* Source: R. Ilargi/SNL)

Here's the breakdown:

TOTAL ASSETS OF U.S. BANKS:  $14.4 trillion.

              THE TOP SIX BANKS:       67% of total assets.

                (JPM, BOA, CITI, GS, WF, MS)

              ALL THE OTHER BANKS:    33% of total assets.

                 ( The "other 6,934" U.S. banks.)

But, don't despair! The folks in D.C. are "looking into it"...

The Road To Damassachusetts?...

Renewal, Renaissance, Revival?

"The apostle Paul was a master communicator.  Paul was the right man in the right place at the right time.  He was well-prepared and well-educated for the task at hand.  And, although he used his oratorical skills; at the same time, he always arrived at the same, simple message."  

"Now Paul could have stood around all day and cursed the darkness.  But instead he decided to turn on the light.  In the same way we can wring our hands and talk about the state of affairs in our world all day long.  Or we can do something about it."

"Not only did Paul take action, but he also took the time to learn about the people he was speaking to.  That is because the way to change a culture is to invade it...."  - Greg Laurie

So, with the latest move, does the Credit Union Movement have a new, master communicator-apostle ready to...

Everyone Needs To Keep A Dog And A Couple of Economists...

Leggett and friend...
(... always best to hold
a poodle by the throat!)

Leggett is one of my favorite pets. Have always been partial to the underdog, but you know with poodles that sometimes becomes difficult. Poodles have had a long, persistent reputation for being frivolous and a bit silly. 

Well, right, Leggett is not much on diplomacy nor credit unions and surely can't write, but he is stubbornly loyal. One thing poodles do excel at is in knowing how to follow instructions and how to come when called.  That's a big asset in lots of circles! 

You can put an idea into Leggett's head and he'll yip away at it all night long.  Incessant barking in fact may be Leggett's raison d'être!  Poodles have never been bred to hunt nor for independence.   That's why there are no stray poodles; poodles are always a pet - kept up by someone.  Leggett's definitely that kind of poodle!

Someone recently asked me if Leggett was named after ABA Senior economist Keith Leggett?  Absolutely not; no way! I can't think of anything more cruel than naming a dog after an economist!

And, besides if I'd wanted to mark Leggett with "an economic slander", would have ...

Success...

J. Paw Kitty

Formula for success:

"Rise early, work hard, strike oil."

- J. Paul Getty

A Pittance....

"Poverty, of course, is no disgrace, but it is damned annoying."

                         - William Pitt


 

Getting Goosed...

Federal "hiss"-ation!

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing."

- Jean-Baptiste Colbert

(Credit unions are "hiss-exempt" cooperatives.)

Pliny the Younger On America's Banks....

Enough is an oxymoron! 

"Avarice has so seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they to possess their wealth."

- Pliny the Younger, c. 110

Reform...

"Nothing so needs reforming, as other people's habits."

- Mark Twain

(Bring anything to mind?)

From The Field...

"Brain has been slower to progress on his modules than I had hoped."

(Brian needs to give this some thought...)

Dudley: "Do Right" !....

Becoming Fed up - finally?

William C. Dudley is the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a position considered to be the second most powerful within the Federal Reserve System.  Experienced, tactful, discreet, Mr. Dudley, as you might imagine, is measured and careful whenever publicly expressing his views on the American banking system.  His opinions matter, he is always "on the record".

Which makes his remarks last week before the Global Economic Forum in New York City of particular note.  Mr. Dudley's topic of choice was: "Ending Too Big To Fail".  Much was not new in Mr. Dudley's analysis of the on-going problem of TBTF U.S. banks, but what brought the house down was the following comment:

Fowl Language...

"We speak for people who matter..."

The American Bankers Association (ABA): "As to credit unions, all we can say is that, if they walk like a duck and act like a duck, then...."



The Federation Of Credit Unions :  "We fully agree with the ABA that...

Much Like Putting Lipstick On A Pig....

ABOUT BANKING:

"Mr. Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England and other regulators across the world, are forced to deal with a sector [banking] that combines the most unattractive features of [1] the oil industry (well-paid jobs inflate the currency), [2] the nuclear industry (occasional blow-ups and meltdowns), and...

V-Day... The First Veterans

          "The Shot Heard 'Round The World."

North Bridge

 Concord, Massachusetts
April 19, 1775

Healthcare Reform...

www. healthcare .gov
Doing a website colonoscopy?

"I hope it's true when they say "laughter is the best medicine"... because that's about all I can afford right now."

From The Field...

"I am hopeful that our bio-retention pond drainage issues have dried up."

(A properly functioning dried up pond?)

You Auto Know Better...

Not too difficult to spot the political, legal, and regulatory storm closing fast on the indirect auto lending business. 

Blocked by Congress from directly regulating consumer auto sales and finance, the CFPB has decided to try and regulate the auto market indirectly. 

Credit unions, participating in indirect lending with auto dealers, are bullseye-dead center of the on-rushing threat. By its nature, indirect auto lending by credit unions has always been a reputational embarrassment waiting to happen.  Well, get ready for "happen"....!! 

Trades will be up against a wall....

Credit union trade associations, too, cannot avoid the upcoming debate on indirect auto lending.  The typical stand pat, try-to-please-all position on this issue just won't get it this time around. ("Indifferent", "not-on-the-ball" regulators might also consider their looming public and Congressional profile dilemma!)

Baby birds and tomcats?

There is nothing inherently wrong with dealer, captive, or indirect auto lending. All have their roles.  There is something wrong with credit unions which knowingly feed "baby bird" members to "tomcat" car dealers. 

What has inspired some credit union managers to confuse the limitless promise of credit unions with the limitless promises of car dealers?

5 More "Super-telesistic" Ideas For Lending....

All hands on deck!

Don't quit while you're ahead! Here are 5 "super-telesistic" opportunities to up yours lending:


1.  Purchase Loans from Out-of-State Lenders - Claim it's diversification and earn some great upfront fees, too! NCUA obsesses about "concentration risk" so you can really substantially reduce that risk by having a few bad loans in every state.

Can we help you?

2. Buy Asset-Backed Securities and Novel Derivatives - Innovation is the key to our future success and "synthetic" loans are the future.  Can't miss with this one; because the underlying assumptions are absolutely (and "robustly") empirical. The brokers and dealers just exude confidence; and they must know what they're doing, because Guccis, Rolexes, and gold chains ain't cheap! Last one I met got his start as a "sand states" real estate appraiser and his ancestors sold invisible ("synthetic") clothes to kings. And, now a special bonus, NCUA has endorsed all this based on its experience with regulating these practices at corporate Credit unions.  Can't miss with this! 

Only the best for you!

3.  Develop A Taste for Loan Participations -  The rates and terms are simply fantastic!  Most of these are just too good to be true.  An unbelievable opportunity for those excess funds and you can always be certain that you are buying the highest quality loans the seller has to offer.  You'd sell your best assets first wouldn't you?!  Go for it!

The Ultimate Personal Rejection...

Federally-subsidized affordable housing...

Thirty or so miles north of Raleigh is the small community of Butner, N.C. which is the home of a large, modern federal prison complex.  The prison is the source of many valuable jobs for the area and is also the home of many of the formerly rich, formerly prominent, and formerly innocent. 

"The rent is much, much
cheaper than NYC!"

Bernie Madoff is a resident, as was Jim Bakker, the ex-televangelist, Jon Hinckley, attempted assassin of President Regan, and Larry Flynt, former publisher of Penthouse magazine. It's a pretty - formerly - fast crowd!

Federal prison, of course, is a serious business. Nothing much funny about losing one's freedom due to a substantial personal failing - judicially confronted and publicly admonished.

But it's difficult not to smirk a bit at Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s unusual introduction to the most rigid and inflexible of governmental bureaucracies - the federal prison system....

From The Field....

Always warm and fuzzy !

"Melinda never complains about anything; she has a bright future with our credit union."

(Yes, that "talent" is very rare in our organization!) 

A Voice From The Past....

Noted the following quotation in the newsletter of the North Carolina Bankers Association (don't worry I read it in private, so nobody knows!) attributed to Mr. Neil Smith the late CEO of First Savings and Loan of Mebane (NC):

"There will always be the need for a small town thrift....

          unless we are regulated out of business."

 

 

A voice from the past:  First S&L of Mebane no longer exists.

 

If you replace the word "thrift" with the phrase

"credit union"...