Speaking out...

by Ronald Joseph Kule

I talk with community bankers all day long, and most of them are doing just fine, actually some having their best year ever this year, but you wouldn't know it from the headlines and TV time spent on the misery brought about by a few criminal minds in their industry.

Community bankers care about their local communities and have their roots in the local areas they serve, for the most part. They're hard-working people who have their finger on the pulse of their local economies.

The public has to learn to differentiate between those who don't care about small town America and those who live and work in it down on "Main Street." The money is still in the banks, still working for your neighbor's loans, still kept in a safe place close by. Your money is the wheel and what keeps it turning is your confidence in your own skills and your know-how, those of your friends and neighbors and your local bankers who safeguard your money and help you and your neighbors take out the loans you need.

When you're confident, the economy is good; when you're unsure, you hunker down and take that old, tired viewpoint, "I'll wait and see." Economy is less about the money than about the people and their confidence level.