Iowa Board of Regents' Motives Re Credit Union Are Questionable

Captions: 1. Cardboard cut-out of bear seen on the FOOLS' Ride in April 2016. 2. Cardboard cut-out of Trump seen on the FOOLS' Ride in April 2016 (note cloven hooves).

University of Iowa Community Credit Union President Jeff Disterhoff made a point of calling Iowa Board of Regents Regent Larry McKibben on his failure to disclose a clear conflict of interest, his part ownership in Farmers Savings Bank in Marshalltown, Iowa, when McKibben attacked Disterhoff's credit union. Regent Nancy Dunkel disclosed her service on the board of Principal Bank in Des Moines. Her bio lists "a long and distinguished career in banking."

Larry McKibben said he didn't disclose his conflict of interest because he didn't think there was any.

"... Does any of that [part ownership of a bank] have an effect on what I'm doing as regent? McKibben asked. "Good Lord, no."

Say what? He clearly hopes we believe he has no conflict of interest in his hit job on the credit union. I don't.

Regents McKibben, Dunkel, and other bankers are "concerned" about what could happen if, God forbid, the University of Iowa Community Credit Union were to be involved in "scandal," as though the UICCU were the potential moral equivalent of criminally convicted banks like Wells Fargo, which the New Republic thinks should get the corporate equivalent of the "death penalty," or any of the "too big to fail" banks on Wall Street, who were bailed out by taxpayers and, unjustifiably, were not indicted or convicted for their multiple violations of federal law. For bankers to worry about the potential moral failings of credit unions like the University of Iowa Community Credit Union is laughable.

For more information, read Matt Taibbi's article about political corruption in favor of wealthy bankers in Rolling Stone magazine and Charles H. Ferguson's book "Predator Nation: Corporate Criminals, Political Corruption, and the Hijacking of America," which lists the reasonably plausible crimes that Wall Street CEOs violated. In fact, the financial services division of AIG, which did the most damage, got big bonuses after the crash. Taxpayers paid for those bonuses.

The bankers' war on credit unions is old news. The regents' (some of whom are bankers) "concern" that the breath of scandal could hurt the Iowa university they allegedly serve is self-serving. They're not just regents; they're bankers. Their strategy is to take away the non-profit status of the credit union and impose a tax on credit unions.

The people who do business with credit unions benefit from their non-profit status.

We started doing all of our banking at the UICCU after we tried to open savings accounts for our then little kids at our local bank. The bank wanted to charge between $8 and $9 a month for each savings account! Highway robbery! We went to the credit union and our two children's savings accounts were free! They might even have accrued interest, much as our credit union checking account does now.