Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Financial innovation

[Matthew Whiting (mewhiting]

John, There is lots that has been written and said about the failure of the
Kirtland Savings Association.  Whether you think it or not, please don't
bash the beliefs of Mormons on the list.  As we're trying to get cohousing
going in a predominantly Mormon area (Utah County UT) it will certainly not
help us.

There were *lots* of bank failures at that time this was one of them.  A
large in-flux of poor people with little assets and large debts that were
not made good upon.  "Overly" large debt to income ratios are hard for banks
to support just like it is for a normal person, though what is considered
"too" much is rather different.  If the cohousing banks are marketing to a
similar demographic then I would expect them to have some of the same
problems.  Some were rather unique to the Mormon experience - I doubt that
cohousing groups are dealing with the same kind of persecution that Mormons
were facing at the time (disgruntled cohousing members inciting the public
against them, etc ???).

I read through the bit of the link you provided, it's not a bad summary of
events.  Unfortunately it gives no indication of why the bank failed.  Did
it fail because Joseph and Sidney skimmed funds?  Did it fail because they
were too open hearted and loaned to people who were "subprime"?  Were there
runs on the bank?  Not a high enough interest rate? How did disaffected
Mormons play into it? If you are interested I would suggest looking at a
more thorough treatment of the subject.  Just remember that when dealing
with a religous topic writers will always have a slant and in my experience
most of the slant is biased against religous belief in general, not just a
particular religon.

-Matt Whiting
Utah Valley Commons - forming
Provo UT