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“How Come….” A Series

Episode 1: Large institutions are avoiding discussing a bank with current and past problems. How do we solve issues and systemic problems when everyone is playing hot potato with them?

The time is always right to do what’s right. – MLK, Jr.

Forward from the writer: In this series we will be looking at issues within our various institutions and systems to bring awareness and start proactive discussions with the aim of bringing much needed positive change. Change we all know is needed even if we don’t know the how. This is not about pitchforking people or parading seeming wrong doers in front of a virtual town hall for embarrassment and shame. Our society has done that for too long with unpleasant results. It’s also not about showing a problem without solutions. As I write in this inaugural piece, we are human and it’s obvious that in the journey of life errors will occur. Some forced, some unintentional. People will need help. The goal here is to create a space for us to look at what we are doing as a society through a particular issue and then, hopefully, bring positive change, with human dignity. Blame and shame doesn’t work. Let’s try something else. Like the good man said, you may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. Yep, even with banking, which is where we will begin…

What is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank? – Bertolt Brecht

How sad is it that quote resonates today. Most would agree there are too many Mister Potters and not enough George Bailey’s, but is that fault of bankers or the system we keep running, unchanged?

The Federal Reserve, FDIC and other state and government agencies are tapped with monitoring banks, overseeing money and financial systems that directly affect our individual day-to-day lives as well as our country globally. And yet with thousands of people across the U.S. working at these various entities slated with protecting the financial health of banks and our monetary system, problems persist. Ah, humans.

Of course it’s not shocking that problems exist in banking, to err is human after all. However, it’s the persistent issues that demand our attention, especially when nothing seems to be done to rectify the situation, like, say, an institution with over a decade of problems continuing into the present, as with CEO Charles Chrietzberg’s Monterey County Bank. So when someone high within the rarified world of big-money investments, one involved with the specific and intricate dealings of finance is sounding an alarm and asking for help yet hearing crickets from said officials, that seems worth discussing.