Jason Chang, 04/23/12
 

An event that marked the publication of the Occupy Handbook was held last week at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, signaling the re-awakening of the Occupy Wall Street movement that caused ripples worldwide last fall. Featuring a distinguished panel of guests including Nobel Laureate economist Robert Solow, Martin Wolf of Financial Times, Pulitzer Prize winner David Kay Johnston, Bethany McLean of Vanity Fair, Jeff Madrick of the New York Review of Books and noted economists Jeffrey Sachs and Raghuram Rajan, the event showcased a diverse set of topics and perspectives that the Occupy movement has brought to light.

A research report by The European Association of Cooperative Banks, “European and Cooperative Banks in the Financial and Economic Turmoil: First Assessments,” delineates five characteristics of the European cooperative banking model that have contributed to its resiliency. These are strong capitalization, a business model that puts members and customers first, built-in anti-cyclical behavior, tight bottom-up control mechanisms, and a democratic governance scheme. Among the anti-cyclical behavior built-ins is a distinctive mechanism that has not only given cooperative banks’ the wherewithal to withstand systemic market shocks but has added resilience to the financial industry as a whole during times of financial crisis: the internal cross guarantee or institutional protection agreement. These agreements, integral to almost all European cooperative networks, require each independent cooperative bank to guarantee the deposits of all members of its network, thus providing an extra layer of protection to depositors in the event of a single bank’s failure.

We’d like to call our Capital Institute community’s attention to four not-to-be missed events upcoming this spring. “Degrowth in the Americas,” to be held in Montreal from May 13 to 19 will focus on what degrowth means for our Hemisphere.  BALLE’s “Prosperty Starts Here,” to be held in Grand Rapids from May 15 to 19, is the organization’s annual gathering of local economy entrepreneurs and visionaries. On Earth Day Slow Money NYC will showcase five pioneering food entreprenuers from the lower Hudson Valley of New York in Pocantico Hills, NY. Capital Institute Founder and President John Fullerton will be a speaker at the Degrowth and BALLE conferences. The Public Banking Institute is hosting its inaugural Public Banking Conference in America in Philadelphia April 27 and 28, taking a look at public banking success stories and the hidden costs of our current banking system.