PayThink

I appreciate the story "Accounting Rulemakers Ease On Fair Value Standards To Aid Corporates (CU Journal Online, Jan. 7) about the new guidance from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). I'd like to clarify a few points.

Some other notes following a year-end clearance sale of items remaining in the Reporter's Notebook:

Housing advocates in California today got some fresh air as they decried bank bailouts and called for government aid to Main Street. Representatives of 40 community groups marched through San Francisco, stopping at the local headquarters of big banks that received federal bailout money and ending their rout at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

Since the collapse of the world financial system, plenty of politicians and industry insiders have engaged energetically in the endless pursuit of deciding whom to blame. Whose fault is it, really, that so many subprime mortgages were made based on so little documentation and then securitized and sold so many times under more and more complicated structures?

Her lawyers insist the accusations have no merit and the misstatement she is alleged to have made was no big deal. But Mary Schapiro´s alleged improprieties during the merger between the New York Stock Exchange and the National Association of Securities Dealers has direct bearing on her possible tenure at the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Obama administration´s pick for SEC chairman will likely need to better explain herself at her nomination hearing this week.

Things are heating up on the Hill with bankruptcy reform and the stimulus package, and the week before the presidential inauguration promises to be action-packed. Some believe President-elect Barack Obama´s economic team could ask for the second half of the Tarp money before Mr. Obama takes office. House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., could bring a bill conditioning the release of the money to the floor this week. Other things to watch for: a new president the New York Fed; Citigroup lobbyists dodging rotten tomatoes; an auto parts industry bailout?

As I was growing up, my mother was the CEO of a credit union, so in a way I've been in the credit union industry my entire life. From an early age I can remember the sense of family and community I felt among staff and members alike when I would visit my mother's credit union. Everyone was friendly and knew each other by name, and it was a very comfortable and welcoming place to be. Most importantly, I noticed that the people working at her credit union had a sincere desire to help their members with their financial needs - a true commitment to the credit union philosophy of "people helping people."

It was a warm Friday evening in July 1997, and we had just returned home from the World Council of Credit Unions forum in Vancouver, BC. We greeted Rachel, our long-time friend and co-owner of the cooperative house we shared in Brooklyn, New York.

If the current economic situation makes you want to forego marketing your credit card portfolio-think again. 2009 offers an unprecedented opportunity for credit unions to gain market share, reach out to worthy consumers who need credit, and build a more loyal membership base.

It only occurred to me after I had climbed into the back seat of the rental car with three strangers that this might become one of those stories tucked inside the local news section of the paper. Dead man found on side of road. No ID. Nobody reported missing.