Category: Observations

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The Fastest Blog I Never Wrote

What are the events to pay attention to going forward  in 2023?

1. Economy: The global economic outlook for 2023 is uncertain due to the continuing effects of the COVID–19 pandemic. Depending on the speed of the recovery, inflationary pressures, and the effectiveness of monetary and fiscal policy, the economy could experience a slow recovery or a rapid rebound.

2. Possible Recession: It is difficult to predict whether or not a recession will occur in 2023. However, many economists are predicting that the global economy could be in for a slow recovery.

3. Domestic and International Uncertainties: In 2023, there will be a number of domestic and international uncertainties that will impact the global economy. These include the Brexit negotiations, US-China trade tensions, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Additionally, the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will likely have an effect on the global economy.

4. War in Ukraine: The war in Ukraine has been ongoing since 2014, and there is no end in sight. In 2023, the conflict is likely to continue, with both sides.

A Brief New Year Poem

The New Year‘s here and it‘s time to go,

New things to try and places to go,

The future‘s filled with so much hope,

Full of chances and a brand new scope.

A New Brand

What does Washington’s NFL football team’s new name,  Commanders, suggest?

The nickname for a team called the Commanders suggests that the team is strong, organized, and in control of their destiny. It evokes the idea of a unified group working together to achieve a common goal.

The Source for this Commentary

What is the new AI site Playground and how can a person can test out its capabilities for their use?

Playground is an AI development environment that enables users to create, train, and deploy machine learning models. It provides an intuitive, interactive interface that enables users to easily explore and experiment with machine learning algorithms.

It includes a wide range of examples and tutorials to help users get started quickly. With Playground, users can quickly create, train, and deploy machine learning models without having to write code.

The platform also provides an integrated development environment (IDE) that enables users to easily code and debug their machine learning models. Additionally, users can leverage the platform to create custom datasets and evaluate models using statistical metrics.

Playground also offers a library of community-contributed models, so users can test out models from other users and get inspired.

The final words:  These are is the only words of mine for this post.  Playground did the rest in response to my requests.  The examples are intended to show the site’s versatility and realism.  Now you can go write your own blog or use to post a comment below.

 

 

 

 

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Is Santa Real? The Most Famous Letter to an Editor

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is a line from an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church in the New York newspaper The Sun on September 21, 1897.

The exchange became so well know that The Sun  republished it during the Christmas season every year until 1950, when the paper ceased publication.  The writer’s  response outlives the event and his paper.

Is there a message beyond this recurring seasonal query?

Here is the letter:

September 21, 1897

Dear Editor, I am 8 years old.

Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.

Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.”

Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?

Virginia O’Hanlon

The Editor’s Reply Excerpted ( The full letter can be read here)

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. . .

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. . .

Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see.  . .

Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. . .

A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10 thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Are Credit Unions for Real?

At a point every movement founded on goodwill will have sceptics.  Even credit unions.

Some today see the cooperative credit union model as only nostalgia.  Similar to listening to sports on radio, two-a-day newspapers, and created in an era when congregations were standing room only on Christmas eve.

Those times are gone.  Today the future for cooperatives is to match their bigger, stronger and more influential competitors.

These sceptics put their faith in numbers, the higher the better.  The idea that members should share in the first fruits of their collective effort is seen as naive in a competitive market.

Whether large or small, the founders’ belief that credit unions  should serve the well-being of all-even those who have the least or know the least about finances-is passe.  Especially when AI based lending can do it all–faster, cheaper, and more fair.

The Most Real Thing

The editor’s response describes a different reality.

Members’ faith and loyalty create trust, the foundation of any sustainable relationship-whether commercial or personal.  Credit unions empower with service that “makes glad the heart.”

Uplifting peoples’ and communities lives can be “the highest beauty and joy.“ This purpose  ignited tens of thousands of founders, differentiates still  and will be  relevant “a thousand years from now.”

Santa’s commercialization and consumerism is just one side of the story.  It invokes an image  to put a shiny veneer on profit making.

The editor’s letter  presents why this character’s symbol continues to fascinate children of all ages.

And that same understanding is what will make credit unions, at their best, a “real and abiding” movement for future generations.

 

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Christmas Eve with No Peace

Jeremiah 6:14

For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

Patrick Henry 1775: Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace– but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

National Cathedral, Washington DC, Spring 2022

Volunteers prepare to defend Kiev

War and civilian injuries

A defender at the Azovstal iron and steel works in Mariupol

DNIPRO, UKRAINE – JUNE 3: The funeral ceremony for 27 Ukrainian serviceman who died fighting with the Russians in the eastern front-line, in the military part of Krasnopilske cemetery in Dnipro, Ukraine, on June 3, 2022.

A relative knees by the body of a teenager who died in a Russian missile strike at a bus stop in Saltivka, a northern district of the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on July 20, 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
KYIV, UKRAINE – OCTOBER 17: A Ukrainian soldier rests on the sidewalk after the Russian attacks in Kyiv, Ukraine on October 17, 2022.
BAKHMUT, UKRAINE – DECEMBER 5:  A Ukrainian soldier, heavily wounded in conflicts within Russian-Ukrainian war, waits to receive medical treatment at Bakhmut Hospital in Bakhmut,

Kiev meal with only lantern light December 2022

Washington National Cathedral, Christmas 2022

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The Power of Traditions: Balancing the Old and New

Holidays remind us of past practices, events and stories that have made us who we are as individuals and a country.

But they can be confusing.  For some may view these breaks from the working calendar as simply nostalgia, irrelevant to the present, without  the correct lessons to carry us into the future.

Traditions are hard to maintain. That’s why holidays can help. People and cultures change. The song Tradition from Fiddler on the Roof presents this challenge “keeping balance” between past and present mores within a family and in society.

Credit unions were constructed around tradition.  The founding stories tell of the sponsor group of employees, in a community,  or with members of church drawing  upon their existing “common bond” to create a novel way to improve their collective lives.  In the process they evolve their separate institution, forming a culture of service and a reputation of trust.  They develop their own traditions.

Holidays Recall Stories that Matter

The current holiday season is always special. We rewatch movies that capture the Christmas spirit.  The Inn on 34th Street, Holiday Inn (introducing the song White Christmas), the movie White Christmas, and Frank Capra’s classic, It’s a Wonderful Life have a staying power sometimes missing in contemporary Hallmark channel versions.

Whatever a film’s lasting  artistic expression  they all still share the same human story of redemption.

Literature classes in school recite Twas the night before Christmas, or Christina Rosettee’s poem in The Bleak Midwinter (set to music and now widely sung anthem by Gustaf Holst), or other works such as Ring Out Wild Bells from Tennyson and Old Christmas by Washington Irving.

Dickens story of Scrooge is staged again in cities large and small throughout the US. Its themes of personal hardship and insensitive wealth accumulation still speak to us.

Christian religious services begin with Advent.  These four consecutive Sundays’ candle lightings celebrate love, hope, joy and light all in preparation for Christmas day.

Commerce rebounds. It starts with Black Friday. Retailers from department stores to car dealers all offer specials to draw in consumers. The holiday is filled with special sales offers.  Giving Tuesday reminds that life is more than just getting.

The Power of Traditions

The faiths celebrated at Christmas and Hannukah from which these literary and secular manifestations emerge, are stories of ancestors defining their beliefs in actions that inspire current generations.

These faith practices and commercial activities create traditions repeated over  generations. From the lighting of the National Christmas tree to attending midnight mass, people remember.  Whatever their circumstances they  honor the values, spirit and sacrifices that are meaningful in their lives now.

These holiday traditions, sometimes with public parades and spectacles, reinforce meaning and renew hope. Or they  can become a neglected past unrelated to current purpose.

Credit Unions Coping with Traditions

The story of who the credit union is, is communicated by its culture and in the marketplace via a brand.  The founding story is summarized on web sites showing the pioneers who began with no capital, only a desk drawer with founder’s shares, and the desire to serve members with loans.

Every organization must  innovate and move away from prior practices to refresh or sometimes “start over” to remain relevant.  New churches are founded outside current denominational structures to offer a different expression of faith practice, or recover what some feel is a faith lost.   In movies this commercial effort is called a sequel.   Even Scrooge’s stage story has been adapted to 21st century business settings with contemporary casting.

When Traditions Are Discarded

Both religious practice and commercial organizations must grapple with the reality of remaining relevant and potentially losing the power of their story.

Credit unions compete in open markets.  No more protected FOM’s. Members change, so do their needs.  Markets go through cycles.

In most coops the majority of funds are held by older generations, long standing members, many of whom do not borrow.   Management seeks new members often with no previous connection to the credit union and its distinction versus other financial options.  Just another consumer choice, perhaps attracted by price.

Examples are “indirect” lending for autos, student loans, and commercial participations where the business borrower may not even be in the credit union’s geographic market.  No local advantage needed,  just price.

Sometimes this balance of change and tradition is political.  Some wish to conserve the best of the past versus progressives who believe that success was built on limits and concepts that no longer reflect current needs and market realities.

Choices and Beliefs

There is still one commonality whatever the balance between past and present circumstance. The choices each of us make in our professional or personal lives express our values, the beliefs we hold about life’s purpose.

Whether religious, commercial or just lifestyle driven, traditions are efforts to connect within oneself and externally, with others, through shared experience.

Whatever business strategy or “innovations” are introduced, and prior efforts ended, the results are presented as the new rituals for success.

The biggest error is erasing past connections.  It is becoming more common today upon merger or the launch of a market expansion effort to rebrand and to reject past names, associations, and even partnerships in the search for growth.

To dismiss the past as no longer relevant to present circumstance negates shared purpose. Past experience no longer lights the future.  It is stepping off a cliff not knowing how far down is; or taking Christ out of mas.  This may appear a necessary and innovative relaunch for future success; but more likely not. Without a past, there can be no future.

Rebuking tradition without principles is a dead end. For values are the core of cooperative design. With no past, the future becomes a shot in the dark. Survival becomes nothing more than a financial contest attempting just to stay up with overall trends.

Washington Irving’s Old Christmas stories from 1876 remind us of the binding power of tradition.

“Of all the old festivals,” Irving wrote, “that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality and lifts the spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment.”

This “solemn and sacred tone” is accessible all year round to those who respect the legacy of  prior generations that established their current opportunities.

It also adds to  life’s enjoyment.

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Christmas Trees for 3 Cents Each!

The newly cut tree is a universal symbol of this season. The song O Tannenbaum, (O Christmas Tree) celebrates the evergreen as nature’s symbol for this special time of year.

Some families venture out to tree farms to chose their own  center piece for home decorations.

For most who want a live tree, the most common option is a local tree lot—a  temporary stand run by a church, scouting group, volunteer fire fighters as a fund raiser and community service.  Or  shop the  Home Depot or local nursery’s selections.

A common reaction to  this year’s tree buying  is price.   People are surprised at how much this four-week home decoration costs.

“It was $250, and I didn’t even pick the largest one,” observed one home-owner.  An NCUA board member has posted about the price of trees on social networks  to illustrate his awareness of inflation.

Consumerism and Christmas: “The trial by market everything must come to”

This is not a new topic.  In 1916 Robert Frost wrote a poem in the form of a playlet, or dialogue between two characters.  One is a person from the city seeking to buy trees wholesale; the other is a country person who grows these on his property.

The  visitor wants the trees for resale in the city.  The country man doesn’t want to sell.  After walking the back slope and estimating the number of trees around 1,000, the visitor offers a price of $30, about 3 cents per tree.

Frost’s contrasts these two perspectives of the trees’ value, both fully present today.

Frost’s Christmas Card

For many decades Frost wrote poems as  his Christmas greeting.  At this poem’s end he refers to the practice by saying:  “I can’t help wishing I could send you one (a tree), in wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.”

Following the poem, I compare this offer for a tree crop with today’s prices. But is this  really about the cost of trees in 1916? Or, as he writes:  “To look for something it (city life) had left behind and could not do without and keep its Christmas.”

Christmas Trees

BY ROBERT FROST

(A Christmas Circular Letter)

 The city had withdrawn into itself

And left at last the country to the country;

When between whirls of snow not come to lie

And whirls of foliage not yet laid, there drove

A stranger to our yard, who looked the city,

Yet did in country fashion in that there

He sat and waited till he drew us out

A-buttoning coats to ask him who he was.

He proved to be the city come again

To look for something it had left behind

And could not do without and keep its Christmas.

He asked if I would sell my Christmas trees;

My woods—the young fir balsams like a place

Where houses all are churches and have spires.

I hadn’t thought of them as Christmas Trees.

I doubt if I was tempted for a moment

To sell them off their feet to go in cars

And leave the slope behind the house all bare,

Where the sun shines now no warmer than the moon.

I’d hate to have them know it if I was.

Yet more I’d hate to hold my trees except

As others hold theirs or refuse for them,

Beyond the time of profitable growth,

The trial by market everything must come to.

I dallied so much with the thought of selling.

Then whether from mistaken courtesy

And fear of seeming short of speech, or whether

From hope of hearing good of what was mine, I said,

“There aren’t enough to be worth while.”

“I could soon tell how many they would cut,

You let me look them over.”

“You could look.

But don’t expect I’m going to let you have them.”

Pasture they spring in, some in clumps too close

That lop each other of boughs, but not a few

Quite solitary and having equal boughs

All round and round. The latter he nodded “Yes” to,

Or paused to say beneath some lovelier one,

With a buyer’s moderation, “That would do.”

I thought so too, but wasn’t there to say so.

We climbed the pasture on the south, crossed over,

And came down on the north. He said, “A thousand.”

 

“A thousand Christmas trees!—at what apiece?”

 

He felt some need of softening that to me:

“A thousand trees would come to thirty dollars.”

Then I was certain I had never meant

To let him have them. Never show surprise!

But thirty dollars seemed so small beside

The extent of pasture I should strip, three cents

(For that was all they figured out apiece),

Three cents so small beside the dollar friends

I should be writing to within the hour

Would pay in cities for good trees like those,

Regular vestry-trees whole Sunday Schools

Could hang enough on to pick off enough.

A thousand Christmas trees I didn’t know I had!

Worth three cents more to give away than sell,

As may be shown by a simple calculation.

Too bad I couldn’t lay one in a letter.

I can’t help wishing I could send you one,

In wishing you herewith a Merry Christmas.

END

Three cents and Today’s Christmas Tree Purchase

A first class stamp for each of Frost’s Christmas cards would cost 2 cents to mail in 1916.  The buyer offered a penny more for each tree.  Today a first class stamp purchased  singly is 58 cents.

I doubt the wholesale price of trees is under a dollar anywhere as this simple inflation comparison might suggest.

But is price  Frost’s concern? As he can’t “lay a tree” in each card,  is the poem his gift for each reader?

Might this greeting be an example of how he wishes all would appreciate this season?

It is not about the price of trees.

 

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A New Christmas Carol-An Age Old Dream

“Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men.”   The phrase captures not just  the message angels sang, but mankind’s eternal hope.   Every religious tradition makes peace a central theme.

The Sabaton “Carol”

There is Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton.  From their website: “They are best known for their electrifying live concerts combining accomplished musical performances and a finely crafted stage show-including their full-sized tank drum-riser-with energy and laugher.  The band has headlined as far afield as North, America, Australia and Japan, and regularly fills arenas and takes top-billed also at festivals across Europe.”   

I had not heard of the group. 

One year ago they released a musical video, Christmas Truce, from their albumA War to End All Wars.  Their music in  a 6-minute video is set in a very realistic reenactment  of the trench warfare that characterized the front in France.

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

The song honors December 24, 1914, when an unofficial Christmas truce was created on the Western Front. An act of trust and harmony, British and German soldiers mingled and played games together in the midst of one of the most atrocious events of the 20th century – World War I.

The background why the musical video was made and historical context are in this 25 minute video of a unique Christmas-inspired moment of peace in 1914.

This event was also portrayed in a movie, Joyeux Noël (”Merry Christmas”).   The 2005 film showed the drama of this day, depicted through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers.

Sabaton’s musical video was released just  months before Russia invaded Ukraine February 2022.  Was it meant to be a harbinger, a foreboding, or just coincidence?  Lest we forget?

The Words

“Christmas Truce”

 Silence
Oh, I remember the silence
On a cold winter day
After many months on the battlefield
And we were used to the violence
Then all the cannons went silent
And the snow fell
Voices sang to me from no man’s land

We are all, we are all, we are all, we are all friends

And today we’re all brothers, tonight we’re all friends
A moment of peace in a war that never ends
Today we’re all brothers, we drink and unite
Now Christmas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white
Hear carols from the trenches, we sing O Holy Night
Our guns laid to rest among snowflakes
A Christmas in the trenches, a Christmas on the front far from home

Madness (Madness)
Oh I remember the sadness (Sadness)
We were hiding our tears (Hiding our tears)
In a foreign land where we faced our fears (Faced our fears)
We were soldiers (Soldiers)
Carried the war on our shoulders (Shoulders)
For our nations (Nations)
Is that why we bury our friends? (Bury our friends)

We were all, we were all, we were all, we were all friends
(We’re friends)

And today we’re all brothers, tonight we’re all friends
A moment of peace in a war that never ends
Today we’re all brothers, we drink and unite
Now Christmas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white
Hear carols from the trenches, we sing O Holy Night
Our guns laid to rest among snowflakes
A Christmas in the trenches, a Christmas on the front far from home

We were all, we were all, we were all, we were all friends
(We’re friends)

And today we’re all brothers, tonight we’re all friends
A moment of peace in a war that never ends
Today we’re all brothers, we drink and unite
Now Christmas has arrived and the snow turns the ground white
A Christmas on the frontline, we walk among our friends
We don’t think about tomorrow, the battle will commence
When we celebrated Christmas we thought about our friends
Those who never made it home when the battle had commenced

A New Battlefield This Christmas

The center of Kiev in 1943

Today’s war in Kiev

Blankets and warm clothing given to Kiev residents

A soldier and a sleigh

The beauty of the season

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Debt Forgiveness: A Christmas Jubilee Opportunity

There are two kinds of indebtedness that are at best semi-voluntary:  medical bills and educational loans.  To receive the service or benefit, often results in debt.

Debt forgiveness is vital anytime, but at Christmas, especially welcome.

As significant issuers of consumer loans, credit unions know the benefits and the burden of debt.

The example of Canvas Credit Union’s forgiving a member’s debt recorded the highest number of views of any post written this year.

Biden’s proposal to eliminate $10,000 or $20,000 student debt is a political and legal hot button.  It is an ongoing, front page debate between the parties.

What is much less visible is medical bill cancellation. Following are two examples of organizations which have facilitated medical debt relief.  They show how a small donation can be leveraged into a very high impact on consumers and communities.

Churches Initiate Relief

The first article is an edited version of church congregations leading this effort from a  December 15 story from Presbyterian Outlook.

“Nearly 15,000 people facing crippling medical debt will receive an early Christmas present this year thanks to congregations in the Synod of Mid-America and in neighboring states.

“Congregations in Kansas, Missouri and southwestern Illinois raised almost $58,000 as part of Project Jubilee during a coordinated effort to buy $13.3 million in medical debt held by low-income people in five states. Churches and mid councils partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a national nonprofit that to date has eliminated nearly $7.4 billion in medical debt held by low-income individuals.

“RIP Medical Debt used the money raised through Project Jubilee to purchase past due, unpayable medical debt on the open debt collection market at a substantial discount. The Project Jubilee campaign also opted to extend its reach to acquire medical debt portfolios in Kentucky and Tennessee, in addition to the participating congregations’ three home states.

“The 14,815 people benefitting from Project Jubilee are receiving letters this month informing them their medical debt has been forgiven in full. Medical debt abolishment is source-based and therefore cannot be requested. RIP purchases and abolishes medical debt for people who are four times or below the federal poverty level or have a medical debt that is 5% or more of their gross annual income.”

Local Governments Step Up

The non-profit journalism site Next City, describes examples of local governments meeting this need and the critical role of the 501C3 nonprofit RIP Medical.

“Toledo City Council just approved a plan to turn $1.6 million in public dollars into as much as $240 million in economic stimulus, targeted at some of the Ohio metro’s most vulnerable residents.

“It’s really going to help people put food on the table, help them pay their rent, help them pay their utilities,” says Toledo City Council Member Michele Grim, who led the way for the measure. “Hopefully we can prevent some evictions.”

“The strategy couldn’t be simpler: It works by canceling millions in medical debt.

“Working with the New York City-based nonprofit RIP Medical Debt, the City of Toledo and the surrounding Lucas County are chipping in $800,000 each out of their federal COVID-19 recovery funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. The combined $1.6 million in funding is enough for RIP Medical Debt to acquire and cancel up to $240 million in medical debt owed by Lucas County households that earn up to 400% of the federal poverty line.

“It could be more than a one-to-100 return on investment of government dollars,” Grim says. “I really can’t think of a more simple program for economic recovery or a better way of using American Rescue Plan dollars, because it’s supposed to rescue Americans.”

“Under the RIP Medical Debt model, there is no application process to cancel medical debt. The nonprofit negotiates directly with local hospitals or hospital systems one-by-one, purchasing portfolios of debt owed by eligible households and canceling the entire portfolio en masse.

“One day someone will get a letter saying your debt’s been canceled,” Grim says. It’s a simple strategy for economic welfare and recovery.

“RIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by a pair of former debt collection agents. Since inception it has acquired and canceled more than $7.4 billion in medical debt owed by 4.2 million households — an average of $1,737 per household.

The Medical Debt Burden

“An estimated one in five households across the U.S. have some amount of medical debt, and they are disproportionately Black and Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The average amount owed is $2,000. And the problem isn’t limited to the uninsured. Many households with health insurance still end up with unpaid medical bills because the only health insurance plans affordable to them are high-deductible plans.

“Acquiring medical debt is relatively cheap: hospitals that sell medical debt portfolios do so for just pennies on the dollar, usually to investors on the secondary market. The purchase price is so low because hospitals and debt buyers alike know that medical debt is the hardest form to collect. Nearly 60% of all debt held by collection agencies is medical debt owed by some 43 million households, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

“Two years ago, RIP Medical Debt started going directly to hospital systems and offering to buy the debt that they were holding on their balance sheets.

“I couldn’t tell you where it comes from, but generally the number that’s out there is that only somewhere between 20% and 30% of hospitals overall sell their debt,” RIP’s CEO says. “That’s a lot of hospitals that don’t sell their debt on the secondary market, but those same hospitals will sell their debt to us because we’re doing it for a different purpose. So we’ve been able to open up part of the market to buy debt from hospitals that don’t otherwise sell their debt.”

“Today nearly 50% of the debt the nonprofit has canceled was acquired directly from hospitals, and that segment of its portfolio is growing much faster than medical debt purchased from the secondary market.

The process is straightforward. After explaining RIP Medical Debt and its mission, they answer any questions including about reimbursement or regulatory issues, Sesso says. “And then we take it from there. We sign a non-disclosure agreement, we get a file from them, we analyze it, we come back to them and tell them what the analysis has shown, how much of it qualifies, what we would pay, and then we sign another agreement that transfers the debt to us, we send them a wire, and we start sending out letters.”

“Just like that, hundreds of lives are changed.

“Under IRS regulations, debts canceled under RIP Medical Debt’s model do not count as taxable income for households.”  End

Cancelling Debt: A Jubilee Initiative and Coop Benefit

As credit unions consider yearend bonus dividends, employee gain-share payouts and community donations, RIP is one of the most effective and consequential debt relief programs I have seen.

The nonprofit would be the perfect partner for all consumers carrying medical debt in a credit union’s market area.  It is the ideal compliment to the lending side of the business.

Or imitate Canvas Credit Union.   A cooperative could review its own portfolio of loans for medical expenses, look at each members’ circumstances and initiate its own debt forgiveness program.

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Lo’ How a Rose

Joy and the rose–Advent themes.   With the rose the eternal symbol for love and  faith.  Here is a recording of Michael Praetorius’ anthem by the Harvard Glee Club.

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

Roses abundant on Sunday.