Credit union

Definition and stakes

Portrait of Charles N. Fowler Charles N. Fowler,  Seventeen Talks on the Banking Question

“ Mutual credit societies or credit unions are organized to furnish capital for production; that is, it is commercial capital, or credit for commercial purposes, not for investment purposes at all. Not a single dollar of a credit union should ever be loaned upon real estate. Not a single dollar! Not a single cent!! Such a practice would literally destroy the principle upon which they are founded; mutual aid to assist in production, not investment. ”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan,  Proclamation 5211

“ Today, Federal credit unions are at their strongest point in history. They enter this, their 50th anniversary year, as the Nation's fastest-growing financial institutions. As member-owned cooperatives, credit unions operate with the credo, "Not for profit, not for charity-but for service." Credit unions have maintained allegiance to this ideal and as a result have consistently reflected the philosophical tradition and the cooperative spirit of people helping people that prompted passage of the Federal Credit Union Act. ”
Source: Wikisource

Portrait of Bernard Sanders Bernard Sanders,  "The Speech" (2010)

“ I have talked to the credit union people in Vermont and all over the country. Credit unions are doing just fine. They are not the ones that came begging the American taxpayer for a huge bailout. So for 30 years they have survived just fine on a 15-percent cap. But our friends on Wall Street who caused this recession, our friends on Wall Street who needed a welfare check from the American people in order to survive, who today are earning more money than they did before the bailout—we don't have any cap on the interest rates they can charge. ”
Source: Wikisource

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