Move Your Money

As another bank bonus season begins, it can be enraging to see powerful banks, most of which have slowed or stopped lending, reward themselves with six-, seven-, and eight-figure sums.

A few friends—including Rob Johnson, a former economist at the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Budget Committee; Arianna Huffington, co-founder of The Huffington Post; and filmmaker Eugene Jarecki—were having dinner and got to talking about what could be done to "help end the era of Too Big To Fail." They reminded one another they could pull their money out of Wall Street banks and deposit it into community banks. Recalling Frank Capra's classic film "It's a Wonderful Life," Jarecki made a video drawing comparisons between the classic film and our banking options.

"Community banks are typically more conservative about how they manage their money, they’re more closely connected to the people and businesses who live near them, and they’re more inclined to make loans they know will get paid back. In other words, they have the values that more people would want banks to have," the friends explain on the Move Your Money website.

The site includes information and a search engine about finding and researching community banks and credit unions.

Move Your Money serves the dual purpose of sending a message to big banks while supporting local financial institutions—a strong, pragmatic response to the era of powerful banks.

YES! Magazine encourages you to make free use of this article by taking these easy steps. sshutts. (2010, January 12). Move Your Money. Retrieved February 09, 2012, from YES! Magazine Web site: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/move-your-money. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License