A member comment on the Proposed Merger of WarCO FCU and First Financial:
The merger may appear to be a financially good move as First Financial of Maryland FCU has more assets. However, the documentation indicates the Pocomoke location “will remain open for a period of time.” There are no First Financial of Maryland FCU’s located on the Eastern Shore. Therefore, all work will need to be done electronically and one most likely will no longer be able to walk into an office anymore. Brian Cook, Member, WarCO FCU
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“You have to pick the places you don’t walk away from.” Joan Didion
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Jim Blaine: I think one of the ideas which used to ring true was the thought that trying to compare CUs to banks was like trying to compare Ralph Nader to GM because they were both in the car business….any attempt at comparison doesn’t really make sense…entirely different purposes. Credit Unions should never be “comparable” to banks; it seems a useless exercise…CUs should provide the “contrast” to banks. ( January 2022)
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Jeff Bezos: If you’re competitor focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering.
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Ed Callahan: “The only threat to credit unions is the bureaucratic tendency to treat them, for convenience sake, the same as banks and savings and loans. This is a mistake, for they are made of a different fabric. It is a fabric woven tightly by thousands of volunteers, sponsoring companies, credit union organizations and NCUA-all working together.“ (Chairman, National Credit Union Administration, April 1985)
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Samuel Johnson observed that “what is written without effort is generally read without pleasure.”
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Weekend reading recommendation: The Fed’s Doomsday Prophet Has a Dire Warning for Where We Are Headed. The article illuminates the distinction between traditional consumer price inflation and asset inflation (S&P index up 47% the last two years) and the consequences for our political economy.