PayThink

President Obama promised to change the culture in Washington. Yet, in this entire financial crisis, the Administration has made only one effort to appoint a new depository institution regulator: Deborah Matz.

While we must adhere to our fundamental values, we can find new ways to promote them. Social media or other new technology may afford many credit unions the perfect way to reach out to existing and new members.

Being lectured on economic policy by the Chinese is like being called ugly by a frog. And yet there was Liu Minkang, Chairman of the Chinese Banking Regulatory Commission, calling American fiscal and monetary policy a threat to the global economy last month on the eve of President Obama’s first visit to Beijing.

In addition to tempting fate with his assertion that neither foreclosures, bad commercial real estate loans nor high unemployment would send the economy back into freefall, Geithner also appeared to contradict himself on the reasons for a contraction in commercial lending.

The Harvard Business Review’s January-February issue presents a provocative idea: the financial sector should use a "military approach" to keeping the economy safe.

The Harvard Business Review has ranked the 100 best CEOs of large, public companies in the world based on performance over their entire time in office. (Or, for those still on the job, up to Sept. 30, 2009.) It features just three U.S. bankers.

With the central bank under attack from both sides of the aisle, it's no surprise Ben Bernanke's selection as Time Magazine's Person of the Year has been greeted with more scorn than praise. Even the Fed Chairman's admirers felt compelled to qualify their support in some way or another.

With just a wee bit of sass we mark another year passed, where has gone the time?

Thanks to the CARD Act, credit unions have brought their credit card portfolios into the forefront of their strategic priorities. This is a good thing for credit unions and their members.

You know how much your credit union has to offer. The challenge is how to educate your members and prospective members that a credit union is much more than a place to keep a savings account and get an auto loan.