Struggling: Community Banks

Wow, isn't it strange how the tables of life seem to turn.

The good old days - when community banks focused on lending in and rebuilding their communities - have long since passed.

Community banks began to dream big. The new goal was to invest in creative securities and other corporate structures many miles from the neighborhoods that gave them the breath of life. They dreamed of becoming statewide, regional and even national banks; that is, making themselves very pretty for the party ... to be swept off of their feet by a larger more endowed bank holding company, who found them attractive.

Not for the benefit of the local residents who tirelessly brought their paychecks, hard earned savings to deposit to help their local bank to grow. Not for the citizens who believed in the false dream of smoke and mirrors sold to them with localized advertising and stacking the board not with local leaders who represented the people, but with many who had their own private assignments to make the bank profitable even if it meant leaving the prom without the lifelong companion through the years of grade school and forward; leaving the old standbys for the one whom they were told could show them the greener pastures.

Well, now the big boys are breaking your backs. Maybe the grass is not greener on the other side. Now is the time to bring your caucuses back home to the local reality. You found out the hard way that it is not always better to be like them.

People NEED YOU, back where you started from. Come back HOME, and Lend in your old neighborhoods. You know, the ones that got you started. Make loans to 1st Time Home Buyers and take advantage of the new eight thousand dollar tax credit. You will easily be able to recoup your losses if you start again to believe in the ones who put you on your feet.

This time, stay with them until the party is over. You might enjoy the last dance. Ask me how if you have forgotten how to move your feet.

James T. Webb, WAHM, Master Builder