Newburyport Yankee Economics
September 22nd, 2008It was once called “Voodoo Economics.” I believe it was called that by the first Mr. Bush in the Republican primary against Ronald Regan.
I always thought Mr. Bush was right. “Trickle down” economics surely seemed voodooish to me.
I keep coming back to Ronald Regan. Sorry, heresy, I never thought he was a good president. I still don’t. I thought his deregulation economic stuff was a lousy idea. With the huge Wall Street bailout in the works, I wonder what he would think now?
It always struck me as being very un-Yankee like. Newburyport, MA has often been thought of as “Yankee” territory.
We have two “Yankee” banks in town. They do not sell their mortgages, and as a result, because they are responsible for what happens, it’s always been the case, to my knowledge, that if anyone applied for a mortgage, they got checked out pretty good, and had to actually prove that they could pay that mortgage.
“Yankees” tend to save. Coming up with something like coming up with a down payment when buying a house, could be seen as a good thing. Really. It means that the person is more likely to be very committed to making it work.
Our “Yankee” community banking institutions are doing just fine. And it’s because of what some might see as their “thrifty,” commonsense way of doing things.
It used to look sort of old fashion, even frumpy. Not any more. Newburyport Yankee economics is not “voodoo economics.” It works during good times and less than good times.
And it is my very firm opinion that Americans could see a great example by looking at how our Newburyport, MA local, community banks work.