Small Banks, Radical Vision

[Joanne98]

Local banks can change the world, one neighborly investment at a time.
by Zach Carter

William Spademan is a radical banker. In an era when Wall Street executives frequent talk shows to defend lavish bonuses "earned" through reckless speculation, Spademan has been working to create a new kind of bank that would empower communities instead of enriching a powerful few.

"If you give any community the ability to create and control money, can decide for itself what to invest in- what needs to be done," Spademan says.

After spending decades in the nonprofit world, Spademan found himself reluctantly turning to the realm of banking in an effort to mitigate economic inequality and assuage poverty.

"I was kind of repulsed by the whole idea of economics and money," Spademan says. His new banking model is informed by years of community activism. Spademan founded the Center for Peace and Justice in Brunswick, Maine, in the late 1980s and continues to operate a group that provides financial support to nonprofit organizations.

For six years, he has been working to develop a new type of financial institution he calls a Common Good Bank. Spademan's bank combines two common financial structures-a credit union and a public bank corporation-directing the community focus of the former and the profit potential of the latter toward the good of society. It's an ambitious idea that would give communities democratic control over the creation of money and its distribution-restoring public accountability in the financial system, and funding important public projects that have been ignored by Wall Street financiers.

Continued>>>
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/06/14-0

[orwell]

1. Be the change...

...you want to see.

Thanks for the post...