Oscar Perry Abello: In my work as an economic justice correspondent at Next City, I had written all these stories about credit unions, community banking, and CDFIs [Community Development Financial Institutions]. In my head, all these stories combined added up to something greater than the sum of the parts. It says something about the world, more than each story separately.
I just really needed to put it all in one place, have the receipts so to speak, to start having different conversations about the banking system—what it could look like, what it has looked like, and what it needs to look like if we want to eliminate racial disparities, address climate change, or build housing that people can afford. The banking system can support that work better if it’s more local, more locally owned, and more locally controlled.
This is the banking system that we used to have. You didn’t have to go begging to big banks. We are missing the history, information, and data that shows local banking has done big things for this country.
