PayThink

Most shareholders are not activists. Relatively few voice displeasure over executive pay, or other issues such as reappointment of ineffective audit firms. About the only thing they do wake up for is to complain about poor dividends.

One of the most important regulatory decisions currently facing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is how to define the characteristics of a "qualified mortgage." This decision will have an enormous impact on the mortgage markets, and will ultimately determine the types of mortgages generally available in the United States, and the minimum qualifications for those seeking to obtain a home loan.

Wal-Mart stands accused of a major bribery scheme that cuts to the core of the way this international giant does business in Mexico – and demonstrates how little U.S. regulators and investors know.

Strategic defaulters have lost the incentive to pay. Something should be done to replace that incentive, not simply reduce debt.

Senka Huskic is mad, very mad and wants you to share that anger. Think a "Network" kind of anger, a Howard Beale kind of anger, a genuine bona fide "I'm mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore" kind of anger.

Is it fair to give a 30% haircut to borrowers who put zero down, and not to their neighbors who put 30% down? Or to distribute taxpayer funds to five states with half the country's negative equity?

Women expect you to walk the talk. If you say, "we care about and believe in women," yet all of your management is men, then, Houston, you have a problem.

You've heard the philosophical question: If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Should there be an NCUSIF and a separate "NCUSIF Junior?" That question provokes some thought as credit unions get closer than ever to at least a vote in Congress on expanded member business lending.

Nine-million dollars is a lot of money. Few of us volunteer board members or credit union staff members ever will receive that much money either in our paychecks or our retirement.