Category: Observations

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An Important History Note

From Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac on July 15,  2014, i.e. eleven years ago.

July 15 is the birthday of microbiologist Thomas Francis Jr., born in Gas City, Indiana (1900). T.F., as he was known to his friends, grew up in western Pennsylvania and studied medicine at Yale. He graduated in 1925. His early research projects involved bacterial pneumonia, but he was particularly interested in the study of viruses. He was the first American to isolate the human influenza virus.

He joined the University of Michigan in its newly formed School of Public Health in 1941. It was here that he developed the first flu vaccine, which used the dead influenza virus to provoke an immune response in the human body. Francis had discovered in 1940 that there was more than one kind of flu virus. That’s why epidemiologists release a different flu vaccine every year, based on their predictions of which strains will be dominant. It’s estimated that Francis’s flu vaccine has directly saved more than a million lives.

While he was teaching at the University of Michigan, Francis established a virology lab to study viruses. One of his first students in the lab was Jonas Salk. Francis taught his student how to develop vaccines, and Salk eventually went on to develop a vaccine against polio. Francis designed the massive nationwide field trial that proved the effectiveness and safety of Salk’s vaccine.

Francis also founded the University of Michigan’s Department of Epidemiology, to study how diseases are spread through populations and develop ways of controlling outbreaks. Francis said: “Epidemiology must constantly seek imaginative and ingenious teachers and scholars to create a new genre of medical ecologists who, with both the fine sensitivity of the scientific artist and the broad perception of the community sculptor, can interpret the interplay of forces which result in disease.”

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Summer Thoughts and Sights

Growing up our family lived in small towns surrounded by farms.  In suumer the lightning bugs would glow  as tiny yellow flying dots in the warm nights after dark.  They flew their courses at our level of play.

We would take the quart glass Bell jars used for canning vegetables, punch air holes in the metal covers and put in some cut grass. Then we would catch the yellow flickering, flying tiny creatures with our hands. Put them in the jar. We’d take the jars of small nightlights to our bedroom to watch them blink on and off  till sleep.

Frost had a different image in mind.

Fireflies in the Garden

by Robert Frost

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,

And here on earth come emulating flies,

That though they never equal stars in size,

(And they were never really stars at heart)

Achieve at times a very star-like start.

Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.

Summer is vacation time.  School is out.  We look forward to swimming pools opening, time off for holidays and occasionally the ultimate challenge, what are we going to do today?

For Mary Oliver, summer’s hiatus from fixed schedules is a time to ask, what is it you plan to do with  life?

The Summer Day

by Mary Oliver

Who made the world?

Who made the swan, and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean –

the one who has flung herself out of the grass,

the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,

who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down –

who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.

I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down

into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,

how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,

which is what I have been doing all day.

Tell me, what else should I have done?

Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?

Tell me, what is it you plan to do

with your one wild and precious life? 

Summer Colors

My oldest azalea planted over 40 years ago is the last to bloom in mid-June protected by the shade of a tall maple and redbud trees.   Yes, those are two topiary steeds guarding our front door in the background.

Best year yet for gladiolas.  The bulbs take several seasons to reach their full glory at a height of over 6 feet.

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July 4th, 2025: The Act of Freedom

Freedom is not a state; it is an act. It is not some enchanted garden perched high on a distant plateau where we can finally sit down and rest. Freedom is the continuous action we all must take, and each generation must do its part to create an even more fair, more just society. 

—John Lewis, Across That Bridge

Honoring Those Who Took Action

Citizens marching in Bunker Hill, Massachusetts on Independence Day 2025

Remembering the  Minute Men’s Call to Action

The 4th of July, 2025 Kyiv Ukraine

People take shelter overnight in an underground metro station during Russian missile strikes. 

An American Who Answered Freedom’s call in Ukraine

A portrait of fallen U.S. volunteer fighters and flags among Ukrainian ones at a makeshift memorial to Ukrainian servicemen and international volunteers killed in action on Independence Square in central Kyiv on July 2, 2025.

From the Kyiv Independent July 3, 2025: As Russia ramps up missile attacks, US halts promised air defense shipments to Ukraine.  Kremlin welcomes reported pause in US arms shipments to Ukraine, says it brings war’s end closer.  

Celebrating Liberty in Ukraine

The largest prisoner exchange shows the joy of freedom regained.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64J55YzwI5s)

An Anthem Sung Around the World Honoring Today’s Independence Fighters

On this 4th of July, all freedom loving people will stand at the national anthem for one country.  Its people are on the front lines defending the right of all persons to determine their political destiny.

Listen as this anthem is sung from the New York Island to the Baltic Sea by the largest choir in the world.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUfwy3f3R4s)

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4INYnx5e5JI)

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Ukraine: What Elon Musk Should Learn from Yevgeny Prigozhin

Before our July 4th patriotic celebrations, I want to pesent a cautionary note about the insecurities of those who wield great power.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has many lessons for America. I want to suggest a moment of political parallel  in Russia’s conduct with an evolving situation  in America.  In both cases a senior, powerful  wealthy political insider decides to oppose the leader who gave him national standing.

Elon Musk is an intelligent, driven, iconoclastic person capable of great business innovations and disruptive technology accomplishments.

In 2024  he decided to go all in on the presidential  race. He became the leading donar to Trump’s campaign, at an estimated amount of nearly $300 million.  For this contribution and other practical benefits, Trump appointed Musk as the anointed but unconfirmed leader for DOGE’s radical government downsizing.

Musk’s team wielded a wrecking ball across all government. He gave political cover for  the persons confirmed by the Senate who were theoretically in charge of  individual agencies.  They could now fire people and shut down programs at will.  For example, the Agency for International Development’s (AID) closure and transfer of any minor leftover functions to the Rubio-led State Department

The Parting of Ways

Elon’s service certainly benefitted his several companies with government and foreign contracts. These include  expanded agreements with Space X, Tesla and the Starlink satellite communication system, especially from new country signups during trade talks with the US.

But ultimately these two men’s egos could not fit in the same room.  Elon departed in June to focus on his companies.  But he couldn’t help but take some parting and subsequent shots at Trump’s policies. He was especially outspoken on deficit spending in the reconciliation  bill which also ended much of the government’s support addressing climate change.

Musk then threaten to oppose members of Congress who supported Trump’s positions on critical legislation. At one point he  mentioned the possibility of funding a new “center” party to support his preferred policies.

Musk used X and Trump Truth Social and his presidential pulpit to clash publicly. The exchanges grew so heated  that Trump recently said his administration should “DOGE” Musk’s government contracts.  And perhaps research his citizenship application to see if he can be “denationalized” of his US citizenship and then  eligible for deportation.

The Parallel from Russian Politics

From Wikipedia: Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin[a]  (1 June 1961 – 23 August 2023) was a Russian mercenary leader and oligarch. He led the Wagner Group, a private military company, and was a close confidant of Russian president Vladimir Putin until launching a rebellion in June 2023.

The Wagner group had been a major ground force fighting to help Russia conquer Ukraine.  However he gew increasingly frustrated with the Russian military leadership, openly criticized the Russian Defense Ministry for corruption and mishandling the war. He said the reasons Putin gave for invading were lies.[19] 

On 23 June 2023, he launched a rebellion against the Russian military leadership. Wagner forces captured Rostov-on-Don and advanced hunderd of miles toward Moscow.[20] The rebellion was called off the following day, and the criminal charges against Prigozhin were dropped after he agreed to relocate his forces to Belarus.[21] 

On 23 August 2023, exactly two months after the rebellion,[22] Prigozhin was killed along with nine other people when a business jet crashei jusr north of Moscow.[23] The Wall Street Journal cited sources within the US government as saying that the crash was likely caused by a bomb on board  (Source: Wikipedia in Italics)

Comparable Political Events?

Musk and Prigozhin  soared to the top of their country’s political authority with money and demonstrated success managing the critical levers of power in each society.

Prigozhin  eventually turned on Putin but appeared to have reached a truce by undertaking some of Putin’s business and military “chores” in the Middle East and Africa.  But Putin wasn’t taking any chances with this mercurial outspoken leader even when he re-pledged fealty.  He was killed despite the public appearances of a political settlement.

Trump has threatened all of Musk’s business empires if he continues to speak out. Especially should Musk support political candidates who would oppose Trump’s endorsed supporters.

When a leader’s temperament, actions and words all speak to his goal of total authority, there is no place for opposition.  Particularly when the critical words and deeds are public. And from persons who have proven political influence. If someone gets in the way of the leader’s total power, then they must go to exile, either politically or geographically,  Or be totally neutered by some means.

It took Putin just two months to end any facade of a truce with Prigozhin. Trump’s timeline and methods may be different.   But for every authoritarian leader one fact is true: uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

 

 

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Withdrawing from the Game

While the administration’s trade policy may have only an indirect impact on credit union fortunes, it is an example of how public policy can become sideways with America’s long term interests.  And our standing with the rest of the world.

What follows is a brief critique of the underlying assumptions about tariffs and how the rest of the world will react.  The analyst’s point is that poor policy assumptions lead to poor policy outcomes.

Policy is one aspect of the NCUA board’s role. The board no longer exists.  Future meetings have been cancelled and/or called tentative.

The board’s statutory role is to manage the agency.  That also is on hold.

The consequences of these absences of regulatory oversight will not be known for a while.  Meantime some credit unions will take the opportunity to push the envelope on corporate interests.

There will be fallout from this regulatory abdication on policy and agency leadership.  Like the trade example below, the market won’t wait to fill the current vacuum in supervision.

The Challenge of False Policy Assumptions

The following summary of US trade strategy is by William Reinsch at the Center for Strategic and International Studies *CSIS).
Even while uncertainty persists, not only about Trump’s intentions, but also about the half-life of his policies, his actions are being treated as the death knell for the global economy. Trump’s message to the world is that the United States is no longer a reliable partner. The obvious corollary is to find other partners, and that is just what others are doing—with the United States on the sidelines.

 

What is noteworthy is that it appears we are still making progress—in the same way and in the same direction as always. The difference is that the United States is not there; not under Biden and not under Trump. It is typical of Americans to think that we are leading —whatever we are doing is heading down the right path, with other countries running behind to catch up. In this case, however, it appears no one is following.
The new negotiations tell me that the announcement of the old order’s death was greatly exaggerated, and that the case for trade liberalization remains a strong one. Since the current administration is not going to change its worldview, the challenge for U.S. companies is to find ways to stay in the game even as our government has withdrawn from it.

 

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The Question Is . . .

I watched CNN’s ive Saturday broadcast of the New York play Good Night, Good Luck. It portrays CBS’s Edward R. Murrow’s challenge to Senataor Joe McCarthy’s political attacks using anti-communist rhetoric.

Set in the early 1950’s the play recreates an era of political name calling not dissimilar to today’s dscourse.

There is a six-minute final address in front of the curtain by George Clooney who plays Murrow.  The words are from an actual Murrow broadcast.

It begins questionning whether corporate-owned media(TV is dominant) will support critical discussions  in an era of entertainment driven broadcast popularity.

The middle of the “talk” is a collage of quick frames of news clips from the past 70 years interspersed with popular TV shows.

The close is Murrow’s question–not what will politicians do, but rather what are we the people prepared to do?

Here is the final speech from the CNN broadcast.  The message is more urgent than ever for our lives, our work places and our country.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hU9bWiazGM)

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Larry Connell, NCUA’s First Chairman, Dies

Larry Connell, appointed by President Carter as the first NCUA Board Chairman in 1977, died this past week in New Hampshire.

After graduating from Harvard in 1958 with a BA degree in economics, Connell worked for the Comptroller’s office(OCC) in ban k regulation. During this time he earned his JD degree from Georgetown University.

Connecticut Governor Ella Grasso appointed Connell as Bank Commissioner in 1975.   In that office he supervised commercial and savings banks, credit unions, and loan companies as well as acting as securities commissioner.

The Credit Union Years

President Jimmy Carter’s appointment of Connell as Chairman of the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) came at a pivotal time for both credit unions and federal financial regulation.  Congressional legislation converted the NCUA from a single person administrator to an independent federal agency with a three person, Presidentially appointed board.

The same legislation established the Central Liquidity Facility (CLF) within the NCUA.  This was the cooperative system’s public-private partnership establishing lender of “unfailing reliability.”  At that time credit unions did not have access to the national clearing system or to the Federal Reserve

The first NCUA full board included PA Mack, a senior advisor for Senator Birch Bayh,  and Dr. Harold Black an associate professor of finance at the University of North Carolina’s School of Business Administration.

The First NCUA Board in 1979

As NCUA chair Connell was also a member of the Depository Institutions Deregulation Committee (DIDC) which was charged with the deregulation of rates and terms on the savings accounts of all federally insured deposits.  He was Chairman of the new congressionally chartered National Consumer Cooperative Bank (NCB) until his departure from NCUA in early 1982.

In March 1979 Congress established the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC) to bring consistency to multiple regulators’ oversight of rules and call reports.  Connell was vice chair.  That same year he asked if I would serve as the state representative for credit unions.  The term was for two years and included periodic visits to Washington for state liaison meetings.  The primary discussions were about the wording for the new Truth in Lending and Truth in Savings rules.

A Career in Public – Private Banking Oversight

After leaving NCUA, Larry became President/CEO of the $2.5 billion Washington Mutual Savings Bank in Seattle.   This began a peripatetic 12-year career in bank crisis management as CEO or Director for banks and S&L’s across the country from Washington, Texas, New Hampshire, Maine, Illinois, Michigan and Washington DC.

After his work for domestic inistitutions Connell was deployed as Senior Advisor for the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Technical Assistance.  In this role he  advised governments on bank privatization policies and practices in eastern and central Europe, as well as in Russia, Turkey, Colombia, South East Asia and Africa.

At the Founding and the Transition

October 1981 welcome reception for Ed Callahan with P.A. Mack and Larry Connell

Larry was at the founding of the NCUA as the agency transformed to an independent board.  At his departure his successor, Ed Callahan, spoke of his vital contribution:

While Larry Connell’s departure will be a major loss to NCUA and to the credit union movement, his visionary ideas will continue to influence the financial community. Larry’s expertise in so many areas–economics, law and banking–helped to elevate the stature of NCUA during one of the watershed periods in American financial history.

An ever expanding group of people—from government, industry and the media—now actively seek the Agency’s views on a variety of economic and financial matters, not  just credit union affairs.  I can’t pay him a higher compliment. (The NCUA Review February 1982, page 1)

However Larry did continue serving credit unions.  He was an original trustee of the TCU family of Mutual Funds launched in 1988 by Callahan & Associates.

Larry  laid the foundation for responsive, experienced, and professional NCUA leadership. He believed in credit unions as a vital alternative for individuals and communities left behind by the for-profit sector.  He was a friend, a colleague and always open for intelligent conversation.

The NCUA Board’s leadership and support of credit unions.

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Musical Moments of America at Its Best

For the anniversary of D-Day. Written in 1942 by Irving Berlin, I Paid my Income Tax Today supported the country’s income tax collection efforts during World War II.

The rights  are stilll owned by the Internal Revenue Service which distributed the song widely on its publication.

Proclaiming the patriotic virtues of paying taxes, this zippy little tune makes being “squared up with the USA” sound positively delightful. Clearly, the  national dialogue surrounding taxes, especially in  credit unions, has gone in a different direction.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIT3xnYbmzQ&t=8s)

America’s Rising Generation at its  Best

The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh)

To spark your day. The Young People’s Chorus of New York City sing at the Lincoln Center in 2021. These  are the future of the country.  Feel the joy and see the promise. I love the conductor’s enthusiasm.

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erCq44KSEHQ)

An Encore

How Can I keep from Singing

Performed at the 16th Annual Anabaptist Choral Festival 2023 of Shenandoah Christian Music Camp (VA).  

The choir covers their faces to represent the text which speaks of darkness closing in around us: “What though the tempest loudly roars, I hear the truth, it liveth! What though the darkness ’round me close, Songs in the night it giveth.”

And the words of hope: I hear tne bells of freedom ringing; how can I keep from singing? 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-ycev482k&t=9s)

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Should Credit Unions Facilitate the Purchase of Crypto Currencies?

A number of credit unions already partner with crypto exchanges enabling members to purchase and store crypto.  More are considering the service. The fees can be attractive with apparently little risk.

But should this be a credit union endorsed activity? That is a question that arises in other contexts. For example other activities some might perceive as outside core purpose include  supporting state authorized cannabis banking,  interval vacation home ownership or various forms of legal betting.

Crypto issuance and lighter regulation are a priority for the Trump administration and for his family’s personal investing.

Yesterday substack columnist Jared Brock published his analysis of the pros and cons of  crypto currencies.  Following are excerpts from the article.

Can Bitcoin Save Us?

One model of currency creation is to let everyone privately create money and let the market decide.

This is where Bitcoin comes in.

Cryptocurrencies are pseudo-money built on a blockchain, which is a trustless, decentralized, encrypted digital spreadsheet.

Anyone can privately create one.

And boy, do they.

As of this morning, there are over 16,560,000 cryptocurrencies and tokens, with 57,335 new ones coming online just yesterday.

Nearly 100% of these are straight-up scams.

Allowed unbridled private money creation has all sorts of challenges:

  1. Obviously, it leads to a proliferation of fraud. Why would we want to put our young people, old people, unintelligent people, and vulnerable people at further risk of exploitation? . . .
  2. Market instability. It’s hard for people and businesses to plan and budget effectively when there are millions of currencies all whipsawing in price.
  3. Inequality. Rich people and rich corporations have more resources to create and promote their currencies, even if they’re inferior products. This further concentrates economic power and grows economic inequality.
  4. Transaction costs. Mastercard, Visa, Stripe, and the rest of the payments processing ilk already rob a huge percentage of our money, not unlike the moneychangers that Jesus drove out of the temple. With tens of millions of currencies in circulation, virtually every purchase would require several currency exchanges.
  5. Monetary policy. When all money is created privately, democracies lose the ability to direct the economy toward national goals and objectives like ending poverty.
  6. Currency wars. When there are millions of currencies fighting for customers, it incentivizes all of them to undermine and devalue their competitors to gain an advantage.

You don’t have to believe me.

You can just look at history.

America used to do private money creation.

At one point, nearly every city in America had its own city bank that issued its own currency.

Each value of each bank’s money was based on its reputation and financial stability.

It was the Wild West, and it led to endless bank runs, millions of bankruptcies, untold suicides, and the creation of the fraudulent, quasi-government (but actually private) money monster called the Federal Reserve.

Can you hear the Bitcoiners howling?

“Yeah, but Bitcoin has a limited supply!”

Right.

Bitcoiners have an autistic obsession with the fact that Bitcoin has a limited supply.

“Only” 2.1 quadrillion satoshis will ever exist.

My note: this is where I do not understand Brock’s logic.  This is the stated limit for bitcoin creation- 21 million. Is he speculating about infinite computer creation?)

How very impressive.

That’s 2,100 trillion.

That’s 2.1 million billions.

That’s 2.1 billion millions.

That’s more than 10 times all the money currently in existence.

So let me get this straight — you hate U.S. bankers for creating $21.86 trillion out of thin air… but you’re okay when someone else creates 96Xs more money out of thin air? Are you demented?

Bitcoiners insist they’re different, but it’s actually just more of the same — economic injustice and exploitation for all. . .

And what are all these Bitcoiners doing with all their hoarded Bitcoin?

They’re just hoarding it.

They’re lending it out on decentralized finance platforms for interest.

Millions of Bitcoiners have zero plans to ever sell or spend a single Bitcoin. The plan is to lock it in digital vaults as a reserve currency, then create digital Bitcoin-backed tokens that they can lend at interest.

In other words, they want to be the new central banksters, the new monopolistic overlords of finance who decide who gains access to money and who gets shut out. . .That’s the problem with all these Bitcoin-worshippers.

They still love money; they just call it by a different name. . .

Conclusion

Obviously, everything has costs and benefits.

I’m not against Bitcoin. . .

I’m against monopolization. I’m for sharing.

And frankly, millions of Bitcoiners are far-right libertarian rules-free-market hyper-individualist sociopaths. I wouldn’t want to be forced into using a single currency on their terms any more than on central bankster terms. . .

Thus, why I prefer sovereign money — democratic, accountable, safeguarded, fair, just, non-exploitative, accessible, nation-building currency.

I want honest money.

What do you think?  Is this a valid analysis for credit union’s contemplating facilitating crypto purchases?