Sep 28, 2026 · 35 min · 18 segments
Not too long ago, federal funding for community development finance appeared to be on the chopping block. But ultimately, the Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Fund survived…
Clifford RosenthalGuestCarolee GoodkinHostKatie StoneHostI think, Carolyn, I would agree that credit unions and cooperatives more broadly are one of America's best kept secrets.
We would love to evangelize credit unions and the cooperative movement even more than we are trying to do now.
But what are the challenges that you see when it comes to the mainstream understanding and recognition of this movement? Why don't more people know about credit unions?
Well, that's the question that we've been asking for literally the first day that I walked into the National Federation in 1980.
And by the way, you folks have a good idea of what that means and so forth.
But cooperatives have not been part of the economic mainstream for the most part.
And this debate has taken a very different form over the last months and years.
And remember, I'm here in New York City where Mamdani has been elected as part of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Cooperatives were seen as socialist slash communist threats to democracy and so forth.
Where I think we are right now, though, offers interesting possibilities because the word has lost some of its stigma.
And you have a whole generation that is far more open to considering other ways of organizing finances than their predecessors were.
I think that the increasing concentration of wealth over providing a decent living to the masses of people is pushing folks to look for other ways.
to both make the case for cooperatives in the way it wasn't really before, to put credit unions on the map.
I think, Carolyn, I would agree that credit unions and cooperatives more broadly are one of America's best kept secrets.
We would love to evangelize credit unions and the cooperative movement even more than we are trying to do now.
But what are the challenges that you see when it comes to the mainstream understanding and recognition of this movement? Why don't more people know about credit unions?
Well, that's the question that we've been asking for literally the first day that I walked into the National Federation in 1980.
And by the way, you folks have a good idea of what that means and so forth.
But cooperatives have not been part of the economic mainstream for the most part.
And this debate has taken a very different form over the last months and years.
And remember, I'm here in New York City where Mamdani has been elected as part of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Cooperatives were seen as socialist slash communist threats to democracy and so forth.
Where I think we are right now, though, offers interesting possibilities because the word has lost some of its stigma.
And you have a whole generation that is far more open to considering other ways of organizing finances than their predecessors were.
I think that the increasing concentration of wealth over providing a decent living to the masses of people is pushing folks to look for other ways.
to both make the case for cooperatives in the way it wasn't really before, to put credit unions on the map.
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