Ethical banking .. a tautology or ...

I encountered ethical investment ideas while living in the UK. It appears to be more European based. Here is the wikipedia (consider the source; they are prone to edit out what their little minds don't deem to be acceptable, too.) Lots of the links DON'T work I found. Veege


Ethical banking - Wikepedia entry


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An ethical bank, also known as social, alternative or sustainable bank, is a bank concerned about the social use of its investments and loans. Although there are differences among the main ethical banks, they share a common set of principles, the most prominent being the transparency and the social or environmental aim of the projects they finance. Some of them are specialized in microcredits.Ethical banks are regulated by the same authorities as traditional banks and have to abide by the same rules. They have to be distinguished from ethical institutions that provide certain banking services but do not meet the legal definition of bank.The name of "ethical bank" is somewhat controversial, because what is "ethical" or not is subjective, and also because it seems to imply that the other banks are not ethical. However, it is the most extended denomination.

Ethical banks usually work with narrower margins than traditional ones, and therefore they tend to have few offices and operate mostly by phone, Internet or mail. An extreme case of this is Smile (a branch of Co-operative Bank), the first ethical bank that operates exclusively by Internet.[ edit]

It seems like we must make do with credit unions in North America. Probably this is due to the fact that the labor movement in here has been so much less socially acceptable. In Minnesota, where I am from, the Finns stood up to it and there are many more cooperative solutions than in other places in the US.

The barter system as exemplified in Green dollar programs get a big first rush and then peter out usually somewhere down the line. But many active people are still involved in promoting them, sometimes as their life's work .. a cause they can stick with. Even here in Toronto, which has so much diversity, the TORONTO BUCKS program sort of has faded to a wilting nothing.

The free cycle cafes are great too. More than a "giveaway" -- it sometimes promotes people who are great permaculturalists and/or truly into alternatives to financial ripoffs -- meeting up ... I think these will really take off when the shite hits the fan this summer and inflation SOARS, as long as the internet doesn't fade out entirely. Otherwise, the free trade will come slithering down if people have to go somewhere to let people know they have something to give away.