Credit unions upped small business lending by 11% in 2009; big banks dropped by 15%

[eridani]

http://www.alternet.org/story/145781/move_your_money%2C_but_don%27t_forget_about_credit_unions?page=entire

Just about anything is better than getting hosed by the thieves at Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase or Wells Fargo. From exorbitant credit and banking fees to financial malfeasance, once-popular banking behemoths have become economic non-starters. They'll never really make you any money, unless you've got enough loot to play at the winners' table, which is littered with inscrutable derivatives, instruments and other Ph.D.-worthy stratagems designed to shake down everyone without an MBA.

"We're not going to endorse or not endorse the move-your-money campaigns, because it's not what we do," the Center for Responsible Lending's Kathleen Day told AlterNet. "But we do think people should ask whether they are happy with the financial services they have, including their overdraft fees, and whether or not they can get a less expensive alternative. They should look at the whole spectrum."

That spectrum includes credit unions' community-minded instincts. Credit unions' most open membership criteria is municipality, a term in which the citizen and state meet in pursuit of duty and freedom. As the total collapse of the too-big-to-fail banking system proved, the 21st century is no longer a charade about the biggest and the best, but a movement toward reconnecting to the real-time locales we call home. Credit unions are just that type of municipal overmind, with investment as lifeblood.

Which is probably why credit unions are pushing two congressional bills that would allow them to more than double the percentage of their assets dedicated to small business loans. Unlike the too-big-to-fail banks, credit unions have spent much of the econopocalypse rescuing small businesses, as well as their members. For nearly all of 2009, credit unions upped small business lending by 11 percent, while their more corrupt competitors pulled back by 15 percent, even as they continued to dole out bonus millions for earnings reports stuffed with billions in losses.

[Double T]

1. All banks should be converted to non-profit credit unions and the largest of the banks......

should be broken up into much smaller credit unions. The health care insurance companies should also be made non-profit. wall street needs to have the candy taken away from the whining, crying spoiled brat babies; our economy will not be their play toy. Small American businesses need to thrive; they are the only hope for the future economy of this country.

[Grand Taurean]

2. The big 5/6/7 needed to die off.

They should not have been bailed out. Considering they still have worthless toxic assets on their books, I am seeing a dim future for them.