Where Have You Gone, George Bailey?

May 18, 2014

By Lee Habeeb and Mike Leven

He is America’s most iconic banker. Okay. He isn’t a real banker, but we all know and love him; he’s George Bailey from the quintessential Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. Bailey, the local banker from Bedford Falls, N.Y., confronts slumlord and all-around bad guy Henry Potter for control of his father’s bank, Bailey Building and Loan. Potter tries to bribe Bailey, then tries to steal the bank from the young idealist and businessman. It was a movie, and it was the 1940s, so the good guy won. George Bailey got the bank and the girl, and the bad guy lost, humiliated and shamed by a public that hated him.

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2 Comments

Megan Edwards says:

May 21, 2014 at 10:44 am

Thanks Catherine for this wholeloada articles about those big banks, the littler banks, and why it makes a difference where you bank. As you know, I work for Exchange Bank headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA. Our little bank isn’t perfect, but a main distinguishing factor is that in 1948, 51% of the ownership was placed in a perpetual trust…………..Every year 51% of the bank’s dividends are given to Santa Rosa Junior College to be handed out to hundreds of local kids so they can attend the JC. It’s totaled about $70 million + since 1948. I can say it makes a big difference in the community and around $1,000,000 a year directed toward paying junior college fees goes way farther and helps a whole lot more kids than a similar amount spent on 4-year, now-quite-expensive U.C. school or private institutions……………….I try to explain all this to our middle-class, hard working friends, some of whom are stressed by the annual tuition they’re paying out for their kids to go to University of California…..
(…sigh….Old habits die hard, it seems….) But I will keep working on them. And handing them your articles. You never know WHO is gonna wake up WHEN. Thanks Catherine.
Catherine Fitts says:

May 22, 2014 at 9:19 pm

When you live near a bank like Exchange, why would you ever bank at the institutions clearly guilty of significant financial fraud and harmful behavior?

I CAN NOT FATHOM DOING SO!

But if you do, please do not complain about what THEY are doing. It is not they, it is YOU!

Thanks, Megan, for helping to give us real banking alternatives.

Comments are closed.

2 Comments

Thanks Catherine for this wholeloada articles about those big banks, the littler banks, and why it makes a difference where you bank. As you know, I work for Exchange Bank headquartered in Santa Rosa, CA. Our little bank isn’t perfect, but a main distinguishing factor is that in 1948, 51% of the ownership was placed in a perpetual trust…………..Every year 51% of the bank’s dividends are given to Santa Rosa Junior College to be handed out to hundreds of local kids so they can attend the JC. It’s totaled about $70 million + since 1948. I can say it makes a big difference in the community and around $1,000,000 a year directed toward paying junior college fees goes way farther and helps a whole lot more kids than a similar amount spent on 4-year, now-quite-expensive U.C. school or private institutions……………….I try to explain all this to our middle-class, hard working friends, some of whom are stressed by the annual tuition they’re paying out for their kids to go to University of California…..
(…sigh….Old habits die hard, it seems….) But I will keep working on them. And handing them your articles. You never know WHO is gonna wake up WHEN. Thanks Catherine.

When you live near a bank like Exchange, why would you ever bank at the institutions clearly guilty of significant financial fraud and harmful behavior?

I CAN NOT FATHOM DOING SO!

But if you do, please do not complain about what THEY are doing. It is not they, it is YOU!

Thanks, Megan, for helping to give us real banking alternatives.

Comments are closed.