PayThink

Other bankers may be miserable about the way the bailout is going, but Morgan Stanley analysts gave Washington the thumbs up yesterday in a note they wrote about their field trip down to the swamp.

Testimony to the Senate Banking Committee yesterday included a revelation about the Federal Reserve´s contribution to the mortgage crisis that, while it isn´t new, raises the possibility that not every mistake the venerated agency made has yet come to light.

Warren Buffett´s annual letter to shareholders Saturday was grim all around, but one passage in particular highlighted the depths of denial into which some mortgage lenders had to retreat in order to participate in the housing boom: A miniature version of the housing crisis occurred just a few years before the real one began.

Clearly, the two men leading the government´s efforts to stabilize the financial sector are eager to quash rumors that they aren´t working hand-in-glove.

It will be another busy week, with some coveted details expected from the Treasury Department and plenty of bankruptcy drama to go around. The House of Representatives intends to vote on the bankruptcy bill sometime this week, but no precise schedule has emerged yet. A conference on Monday should provide a wealth of ideas to digest over the following days. Also watch for Treasury's guidance on the implementation of the executive compensation rules in the stimulus package.

As the president of the 11th largest credit union in the country, I have followed, with considerable interest, the financial performance of U.S. Central, the corporates and the recent actions of NCUA.

When the notorious bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks he replied "...because that's where the money is." While one would have hoped for a higher standard from the NCUA, the nation's credit union chief regulator, when asked why they were pillaging the capital accounts of thousands of natural person credit unions to support a few, badly managed corporate credit unions, the NCUA response was tantamount to "because that's where the capital is."

Losses among some corporates have resulted in the planned corporate stabilization program and the NCUA ANPR, which have transcended the corporate network itself and clearly become an issue of vital concern to every individual credit union. The issues addressed in the ANPR not only have the potential to radically reshape the corporate structure, but they also could dramatically and irreversibly impact the future of every natural-person credit union.

The days immediately following Katrina were so incredibly difficult for our employees as well as our members at Gulf Coast Community Federal Credit Union. The devastation in our area was such that many of our employees had lost their homes. One of our Gulfport branches was completely destroyed and our Bay St. Louis branch had been in the way of the surge and suffered serious water damage.

My 100th birthday coincides with the credit unions' 100th birthday. I have been a volunteer for more than 50 years and experienced growth of services from just savings and loans to the multiple services now offered. Several months ago I had lunch with Newt Gingrich, and I asked him what advice he had for credit unions. He said, "Adopt every available new method to provide easy access to your services."