The inevitable culmination of the Occupy movement has finally arrived: The protesters at Occupy San Francisco just announced that they are becoming bankers, by filing papers to form a credit union (for real — not satire):
Members of Occupy SF announced their ambitious plans to turn protesters into bankers by creating the People’s Reserve Credit Union. According to Occupy SF’s Facebook page:
The goal of this project is to encourage San Francisco residents, businesses, as well as nonprofit and city agencies to keep their money out of the big banks and to redistribute that money locally. Initial services will include micro-loans for the working poor and homeless, and subsidized student loans at low interest rates.
The credit union is being created with the help of San Francisco’s Glide Community Church and Supervisors John Avalos and Eric Mar. The group filed its paperwork and has already crafted a thoughtful mission statement: The credit union will serve as a replicable model for other financial institutions to reinvest wealth in their local communities. They will support microenterprise, provide educational loans, and foster community improvement projects.
 |
| My suggestion for the People’s Reserve Credit Union logo: a “dollar and sickle” in anarchist black. |
The difference between the People’s Reserve Credit Union and the other banks is that other banks are eeeeeevil whereas the People’s Reserve Credit Union is good.
Welcome to the real world, Occupiers. The world of regulations and accounting and laws and audits and trying to meet payroll. This should be entertaining.
Of course, there are plenty of credit unions around the country already, and they usually make up for their small size by parking members’ deposits in ultra-safe financial instruments, to minimize the risk of failure during unstable economic times, since they don’t have the resources to diversify, as big banks do.
Will the People’s Reserve Credit Union invest safely, and follow reassuring business practices? Er, not exactly:
• The credit union will employ students and homeless, creating 60 part-time jobs.
• Issue 300 to 500 micro-enterprise loans (max. $5,000).
…
Occupy SF will soon learn that micro-enterprise loans are incredibly risky, because most micro-businesses fail. Risky loans are what caused the banking crisis in the first place — remember? Or was that too long ago for you?
It’s all fine and dandy to start your own banking institution with good intentions, but at the end of the day, if you are hemorrhaging money due to risky investments, while calming depositors with the reassuring “Don’t worry, everyone’s money is safe in the hands of the students and homeless transients on our staff,” you’re not likely to last a year. That is, unless, you learn the hard way why banks do the things they do to survive and thrive, in which case Occupy SF will become the very “banksters” they loathe.
And what do you think…
AND WHAT DO YOU THINK…
The People’s Reserve Credit Union…
THE PEOPLE’S RESERVE CREDIT UNION…
Will issue…
WILL ISSUE…
To each micro-entrepreneur?
TO EACH MICRO-ENTREPRENEUR?
Micro Check!
MICRO CHECK!
micro entrepreneur, nano check
Need to pay the zoned out part-timers, and the Credit Union honchos.
How many sociologists will earn their PHDs based on a thesis from this little experiment? I really hope some of them will get published. 90% of them will be trash – but one guy with a double major in computer science will get it right – and it will be the best study of tribal behavior in 1000 years.
“We have met the enemy, and he is us!” (With apologies to Walt Kelly)
A big dose of reality coming your way, Utopian Credit Union!
As mentioned above, meeting payroll and dealing with regulations. Add to that: COMPETITION!
LOL! Yeah. All I’m waiting for now is Midas Mulligan to say “I told you so!”
Ain’t that the truth !!!
Those are just a few of the items that Liberals either HATE, or know little about !!!
Part-time jobs? What? Why not full-time jobs with benefits? Oppressors!!!
Better yet, part-time jobs with full-time benefits! That’s what deposits are for, right?
All I can say is, “The situation is desperate, but it’s not serious.”
I’m betting that the token sane people got together with the professional agitprop crew for this one. The token sane people are beyond gullible, and the agitprop types are looking for something to loot.
Zombie. In Santa Cruz, CA, the #occupy folks have taken over a bank building: http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_19456342?source=most_viewed.
Maybe the two groups can get together and open their first branch office in Santa Cruz. The SF people have the corporate side of the deal going, and the folks in Santa Cruz now have a branch office location ready to open its doors.
Oh, my. “I want a building for Christmas! I want to start a cultural center!”
Frankly, a solution might be to say, “Fine. No one in, no one out until you all surrender.”
I want a loan. Can I have one?
What do you want a loan for?
To start a business.
What kind of business?
Medical marijuana.
How much would you like to borrow?
Hmmm, haven’t thought about that. How much can I borrow?
A few thousand.
Can I have it now?
Of course, this is the People’s Bank not Citibank, after all.
I’ll take it then.
Your name?
Sitting Bull.
OK Mr. Bull pay it back when you can. Next?
– an entity we can sue for ruining our bocce courts and wasting the public fisc on daily having at least two dozen SFPD officers standing around.
p.s. Jaywalk the middle of Market up to Steuart Street. If a cop tries to stop you Zombie say, “Oh : I : see, Officer — I’M breaking the law??”
I’m guessing they redistribute all the wealth in all the accounts so that everybody has the same balance.
Don’t give ‘em any ideas.
Go ahead and give them ideas. Anyone stupid enough to put their money into a credit union run by part-time employees and full-time socialists (with the homeless included) deserves whatever happens to their money.
Considering who would likely be stupid enough to invest/deposit in this enterprise and the inevitable failure of same I’m hoping they don’t get deterred too soon.
Didn’t Obama remove “banks” from the student loan market?
The problem is, if/when it fails, we the taxpayers will once again be on the hook for the “lost” money, cause Teh Won can’t possibly let it fail!
Actually, we’ll be on the hook for bailing them out because credit unions have to purchase insurance for their depositors’ money. At least the NCUA is in better shape than the FDIC.
But, they’ll also be exposed to federal scrutiny, right? So, while “stupid” loans may be OK, lining their pockets in any manner will land some of them in jail, one hopes.
The road to bankruptcy hell is paved with good intentions.
WELL………….IT’S A START
how hard can it be? even idiot conservatives can do it. bust in two months, mebbe three. the paperwork will kill them.
I’m going to take this more seriously than other commenters. This is exactly what the free-market system is set up for: competition, alternatives. This gives OWS some skin in the game, so to speak. Let them see how the system works and show how they can improve over existing options for banking consumers. Within the group there must be people with enough education and economic understanding to make this work. Let’s see if they can make it work, fairly and legitimately. I wouldn’t put my money there, but if others want to, I’m glad they have that option.
Thanks for trying to take it more serious then the rest of us, but this will be a grandiose failure as most ventures by Liberals into the free market that aren’t underwritten by the taxpayer. Think Air America !!
Within the group there must be people with enough education and economic understanding to make this work.
Why? If their goal was to start a new airline by having the passengers flap their arms to get off the ground, would you say “there must be people with enough flight experience and aeronautical understanding to make this work”?
No, I wouldn’t say that. These are not S.T.E.M. people.
I agree with Ze’ev; let’s see what they make of it – provided that they don’t get carve-outs from the regulatory regime, as they did during their ‘occupancy’.
Meanwhile, Fox reports that in Denton in suburban Dallas, a man aged 23 was found dead at the Occupy camp on the University of North Texas grounds. Here is the original report from the website of UNT’s radio station, KNTU (run by Communications and Music majors):
http://www.kntu.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3515:occupy-denton-death&catid=3:news-from-kntu&Itemid=6
The local Occutools released a statement acknowledging that “a lifelong struggle with drug addiction” may have been related to his demise.
http://occupydenton.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/official-statement-concerning-recent-tragedy/
From police – “He also said no one was at the campsite when officers arrived to find the man’s body in a tent.” So, not much “occupying” going on, except by one homeless guy. I’d scoff at the use of “life-long”, but any way you look at it, it’s a shame that he was addicted to drugs and that he died.
Meanwhile, Fox reports that in Denton in suburban Dallas, a 23-year old white male was found dead at the Occupy camp on the University of North Texas grounds. You can see the original report from the website of UNT’s radio station, KNTU (run by Communications and Music majors) by clicking on my name (the link was moderated away).
Occupy Denton on its website (occupydenton dot wordpress dot com) released a statement acknowledging that “a lifelong struggle with drug addiction” may have been related to his demise. In one of those delicious ironies of the universe, the deceased’s first name was Darwin.
You all know damned well:
1) This thing will be a total failure if it ever gets off the ground in the first place.
2) This thing will fall from either idiot loans given out or someone in the bank will run off with all the money.
3) You and me will be required to bail it out. If Obama is still in power, or a RINO is in power, we will never hear of the bailout. The bank will just ‘fade from the news’ while millions of taxpayer dollars are pumped into it to keep it going. Then one day, it will be gone and a very small article on F37 of some newspaper will mention the $600 million apiece in ten to twenty taxpayer bailouts to save it.
4) The people who originally started this idea will somehow have become millionaires and then move to very lucrative positions in other Democrat-held corporate or government agencies.
Forgot to add: The PJ Tatler either alone or with several other blogs should be watching
1) Who the people are who start this ‘bank’.
2) Note what their current yearly tax returns state as their net assets/wealth.
3) Watch – if the bank actually gets off the ground – what the net assets and wealth of this ‘startup investment group’ balloons to.
In other words, if this thing isn’t a total joke, then it is a total movement of money from X to the pockets of the people who are the bank’s ‘investors’. What will they be paid? What will their net worth balloon to in less than a year? Watch this, guys. That will be the real indication of what is going on with this ‘bank’.
In other words, if this thing isn’t a total joke, then it is a total movement of money from X to the pockets of the people who are the bank’s ‘investors’.
“The credit union is being created with the help of San Francisco’s [...] Supervisors John Avalos and Eric Mar.”
I’d keep my eye on them. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it turned out that Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom were on the Board of Directors, too.
You know, this “People’s Reserve Credit Union” strikes me as a great way to launder drug money …
This bank is really bothering me. I smell Solyndra all over again. And I am betting that we all get hit for money along the way.
The group filed its paperwork and has already crafted a thoughtful mission statement: The credit union will serve as a replicable model for other financial institutions to reinvest wealth in their local communities. They will support microenterprise, provide educational loans, and foster community improvement projects.
I notice that this “thoughful” mission statement doesn’t give any thought to ensuring that any of the loans will be paid back or that the credit union actually will turn a profit.
I wonder if the Underpants Gnomes are on their Board of Directors?
This has already been done, very successfully, by people with brains: http://www.self-help.org/
Actually, I applaud them for starting their own bank. They will find out first hand how hard it is to operate a business. Good for them. Why are you treating this as a negative, PJM?
Why are you treating this as a negative, PJM?
Um … Because when it fails, any low-income people who are naive enough to trust the Occupiers with their money are going to lose it … or else the taxpayers will be called upon to reimburse them.
You’re more than welcome to do your banking with them, ID. Will you?
The National Credit Union Administration will probably waive capital requirements and just insure the deposits. The Feds(better known as we the people) should own those social justice micro loans in short order.
I truly believe the left is trying to force The Onion out of business.
Only a fool would place their money into this scheme with the expectation of receiving the same level of safety or return as a regular credit union or bank would offer. It will be the equivalent of buying “fair trade” coffee, wherein the consumer is willing to pay more for the psychic satisfaction of believing that they are doing some social good by doing so. The only difference is that when you buy “fair trade” coffee you know up front that it costs more. I am not so sure the pigeons who place their money in this enterprise will know that. Let’s see how many of the OWS millionaire sympathizers, like Russell Simmons, place their fortunes into the hands of students and homeless people.
This is a great model for these people.
The unions can start their own companies. -coming up next AirBoe to compete with Airbus and Boeing. If gravity does behave the union mob will ‘take care’ of her!
Jimmy Buffet’s song “We are the people our parents warned us about”.
If they run their Credit Union the way they ran their protest, I foresee its going into conservatorship followed by liquidation within a year.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall when they’re hit with all the NCUA regulations. (NCUA=National Credit Union Administration)
Yeah, “Banks do the things they do to survive and thrive”. Like paying their CEO 18 Million while hundreds of thousands of employees are looked over for an annual pay increase and asked to be thankful that they have a job? Astute observation. You epitomize helpless ignorance. Open up your eyes. You have my pity.
Can you please identify which bank gave its CEO $18 million, has hundreds of thousands of employees, and denied those employees an annual pay increase? Details, please.