Occupy Everywhere

No fee Credit Union ATM's are available to members of Credit Unions that are in the Co-Op network (I think most of them are). Like I said before, there were 41 of the listed withing 1 miles of my NYC hotel. It's advisable to look them up ahead of time though because they usually aren't marked well enough to recognize them driving by.
CO-OP Financial Services.

I have never had a problem finding one in the US when I checked online ahead of time. People with smartphones can find them while walking down the street.

 

The plethora of ATMs is just one of the advantages of being with a national bank. I can use ANY ATM anywhere and my bank will reimburse me the fee. I don't have to research ATMs before I travel, or go out of my way to find a free one. But beyond that, there are a number of services they provide that a local bank cannot, such as full-service branches everywhere, not just ATMs. E.g. I have some of my mutual funds in their brokerage department. Credit unions don't have that. The only actual money I have in the big bank is my short-term spending money. Long-term savings are elsewhere. (You should never put all of anything in one place.)

As I said before, a credit union is a better choice for most people. I'm just not most people.

 

Stating the obvious again, eh?(*)

Cheers.

* Meant in a mostly positive way.

 

With all this talk about big banks I'm surprised no one has come up with a website model to connect private lenders and borrowers. Joe puts his money in a local bank or credit union and gets 0.6% on it. Jane, who lives in the same town as Joe, tries to get a loan for the same bank and either can't or gets charged a ridiculous spread compared with what Joe is getting on his money. Why doesn't Joe just lend directly to Jane?
My other thoughts.....people complain about Wall Street "bail outs" but TARP funds were a loan - in many cases shoved down the throats of banks that didn't need it - and they have been mostly paid back, with interest. Meanwhile, what about the bail-out of Joe six-pack? 750 billion stimulus bail-out, bail-out of GM unions, 2% cut in SS withholding, extending of the Bush tax cuts (75% of which go to those earning less than 250k).....and over the last 40 years subsidized housing, earned income credit, Medicaid, a tax code so progressive and full of deductions that over 40% of workers get away with paying no federal income tax and take more out of SS and Medicare when they retire then they paid in when they were working. Does anyone honestly believe America can get out of this mess without EVERYONE taking some kind of a haircut? Obama's deficit reduction commission didn't think so - not even the liberals, whose recommendations looked strangely like Cain's 9-9-9 plan (a consumption tax and no deductions). What say you?

 

Because Jane might not pay it back. You want to lend out your money to a stranger?

Ever heard of junk bonds? They pay pretty good interest, and default a LOT less often than the typical friend-to-friend loan. Risky as they are, the're a lot less risky than lending to a stranger you found on an internet lender-to-borrower hookup site.

 

NPR's Planet Money did a very good piece on the Occupy Wall Street movement. Their programs are available by free podcasting from the iTunes store or their own web site.

 

I've done this and it doesn't have to be that risky. Most people have something they can use to back up the loan. You write a simple contract, you get it notarized, and if they can't pay you take the collateral. A web based model might include simple templates for writing up such a contract although you hardly need them. One lady who's credit card I paid off was paying 18% interest and making all the payments but not paying down the principle. I was like, here's the deal, you have to cancel the card after I pay it off and give me 8%. It worked out fine; she got everything paid off in two years which would have been next to impossible at 18%. We had to cobble together the collateral in case she couldn't pay- even her 1000 trails membership was thrown in there - but we got it to work.

 

Impressive.

 

There is something like this, or at least 'was' 4 or 5 years ago when I last paid attention to it. I can't remember what it was called, but I originally learned about it on Creditboards.com. Basically you invested as much money as you were comfortable with, it was loaned out and you received the proportional amount of interest on it as determined by you. For instance; if you wanted to make $500 available for borrowing at 10% interest, you could set those terms. The money could either be pooled among other investors or borrowed from a single party. Borrowers were vetted the same way as with banks via Fair Isaac scores and/or credit references and could select their loan from the available pool and terms according to their creditworthiness.

 

Kiva - Loans that change lives

This is not exactly for US lenders to US borrowers, but it appears this model is what could work to cut out the banks.

 

I have a friend who has carried a number of mortgages in this way, providing a nice retirement income. He was an S&L executive before he retired.

Tom

 

Have there been any brilliant economic insights articulated yet? Like, say...eliminating all subsidies, formally recognising so-called externalities, or a call to banish the accounting practice of liquidating environmental capital and calling it income?

 

Look at the problems they encountered with mark-to-market. You want environmental capital to be accounted for??

Also:

 

What's the connection between Mark-to-Market and economic externalities? Or Jupiter?