drwohl at earthlink.net
12-31-1969, 07:00 PM
Cliff Rosenthal has made a good case for the connection, in at least a
theoretical sense, between global trade policy and community development
banking.
BUT--I think the time has come to revive a suggestion someone made long ago
to split this list. To me and many of my colleagues in the US, community
development banking is the effort to inject capital into low-income
communities and to increase the access of low-income people to credit.
Apparently it means other things to other people. (Why, some of our friends
in the UK even seem to think that banking is about love. Or free lollipops,
or something like that). To quote one recent posting:
>So the WTO is cover for Imperial rule by dollar/pound/yen/euro rather than
>by gunboat, bomb and sword. Where's the love in all this?
Banking isn't about love, it's about mundane things like investment in
activities that provide a source of repayment. Love isn't a substitute for
collateral. If we are to engage in lending, there has to be capital
provided by someone, and there has to be an incentive to invest if there
will be anything to invest on the scale that we need to have any systemic
impact.
In the here-and-now world of the United States, there is a very real event
about to occur--the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund is
taking applications for $50 million in core financing for CDFI's. This is
what Woody Allen calls "an interesting amount of cash". Amid the hundreds
of postings about the WTO, I have failed to find ANY discussion relevant to
this funding, such as sharing of best practicies, questions about market
assessment, etc.
So, why not have one discussion group for everyone who wants to debate
theory, and one for those of us who want to talk about how to improve the
banking system for low-income communities.
There are subscribers to the list who think free trade is bad. Some seem to
think that no self-respecting advocate of community development finance can
disagree with the assumption that free trade is bad. This is not true--I
happen to think free trade is a GOOD thing, that it is NOT destructive on a
macro level, that while governments can and should take measures to assist
those whose jobs are hurt by free trade (through retraining and job
placement, temporary benefits, etc) they should not impose protectionist
measures that hurt domestic consumers and foreign workers. That can be
debated ad nauseum, on another list (to which, many will be glad to know, I
will not subscribe because I don't have the time to keep up with it).
Back in the dark ages when I was practicing law, I was suing a railway
company on behalf of a client who had suffered some indignities. The lawyer
for the railroad suggested that we should work on the alleged emotional
problems of my client. I replied that if my client wanted help with that,
he would have seen a social worker. He came to me because he wanted money.
And money is what community development banking is about. Let's talk about
how we get more of it to poor communities, and carry on somewhere else the
discussions for or against trade or about whether the WTO is or is not some
nefarious force.
I am now raising my deflector shields.
David R. Wohl
Sabino Community Development Resources
4505 N. Quartz Hill Drive
Tucson, AZ 85750
Phone: (520) 760-8976
Fax: (520) 760-0548
E-mail: drwohl@earthlink.net <mailto:drwohl@earthlink.net>
http://home.earthlink.net/~drwohl
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list
theoretical sense, between global trade policy and community development
banking.
BUT--I think the time has come to revive a suggestion someone made long ago
to split this list. To me and many of my colleagues in the US, community
development banking is the effort to inject capital into low-income
communities and to increase the access of low-income people to credit.
Apparently it means other things to other people. (Why, some of our friends
in the UK even seem to think that banking is about love. Or free lollipops,
or something like that). To quote one recent posting:
>So the WTO is cover for Imperial rule by dollar/pound/yen/euro rather than
>by gunboat, bomb and sword. Where's the love in all this?
Banking isn't about love, it's about mundane things like investment in
activities that provide a source of repayment. Love isn't a substitute for
collateral. If we are to engage in lending, there has to be capital
provided by someone, and there has to be an incentive to invest if there
will be anything to invest on the scale that we need to have any systemic
impact.
In the here-and-now world of the United States, there is a very real event
about to occur--the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund is
taking applications for $50 million in core financing for CDFI's. This is
what Woody Allen calls "an interesting amount of cash". Amid the hundreds
of postings about the WTO, I have failed to find ANY discussion relevant to
this funding, such as sharing of best practicies, questions about market
assessment, etc.
So, why not have one discussion group for everyone who wants to debate
theory, and one for those of us who want to talk about how to improve the
banking system for low-income communities.
There are subscribers to the list who think free trade is bad. Some seem to
think that no self-respecting advocate of community development finance can
disagree with the assumption that free trade is bad. This is not true--I
happen to think free trade is a GOOD thing, that it is NOT destructive on a
macro level, that while governments can and should take measures to assist
those whose jobs are hurt by free trade (through retraining and job
placement, temporary benefits, etc) they should not impose protectionist
measures that hurt domestic consumers and foreign workers. That can be
debated ad nauseum, on another list (to which, many will be glad to know, I
will not subscribe because I don't have the time to keep up with it).
Back in the dark ages when I was practicing law, I was suing a railway
company on behalf of a client who had suffered some indignities. The lawyer
for the railroad suggested that we should work on the alleged emotional
problems of my client. I replied that if my client wanted help with that,
he would have seen a social worker. He came to me because he wanted money.
And money is what community development banking is about. Let's talk about
how we get more of it to poor communities, and carry on somewhere else the
discussions for or against trade or about whether the WTO is or is not some
nefarious force.
I am now raising my deflector shields.
David R. Wohl
Sabino Community Development Resources
4505 N. Quartz Hill Drive
Tucson, AZ 85750
Phone: (520) 760-8976
Fax: (520) 760-0548
E-mail: drwohl@earthlink.net <mailto:drwohl@earthlink.net>
http://home.earthlink.net/~drwohl
This post transferred from the cdb-l mailing list