You Can Take That To The Bank 

Why Charlotte Became A World Class Financial Center

How did a sleepy southern town named Charlotte grow to become the second largest banking center in the United States, second only to New York City?  In short, there are two reasons.  First, healthy free market competition drove the growth; and second, government got out of the way.  Let me explain.

During the early days of this growth, Charlotte was home to two highly driven, competitive capitalists named Hugh McColl and Ed Crutchfield.  Both believed Charlotte could be a true leader in the world of banking and finance.  Hugh was leader of NationsBank (today’s Bank of America) and Ed was head of First Union (today’s Wells Fargo).  Their commitment to Charlotte and the free market were the among the catalysts for growth in many sectors of our economy and brought us great changes to our skyline.

In the late 1990s, I worked in the Capital Management Group of First Union. A few years earlier, Bank of America had built the tallest building south of Philadelphia and east of Houston.  It stands at the corner of Trade and Tryon in Charlotte. Rumors began flying that Ed Crutchfield, CEO of First Union, was going to build a taller building to one-up his nemesis, Hugh McColl of Bank of America up the street.  But Ed’s building was never built.

 

Their good nature ribbing about the size of buildings aside, these two captains of industry, fueled by their great competitive spirit, grew their own companies and brought growth,

expansion and an increase in jobs not experienced in many other parts of the country.  Today, Charlotte has matured into a global player, attracting industries far beyond banking.  And speaking of banking, we certainly may overtake New York City to become the largest banking center in the nation.  

 

With all respect and deference to the great leaders of Charlotte industry over the years, there was another important reason Charlotte has succeeded.  Government got out of the way.  Prior to 1985 banks were only allowed to do business within their own state.  There were no interstate banks.  The Federal government and most States had enacted strict and cumbersome regulations, but the North Carolina General Assembly made banking within our State relatively easy without unnecessary regulations.  As a result, our banks enjoyed considerable experience in merging and acquiring assets within the State.  This allowed our banks to be better capitalized and more competitive than banks in other States. 

 

So, in 1985, when Federal interstate banking laws were repealed, NC banks were soon acquiring banks in Florida, Texas and other locations.  Chartering new banks was easier too. It’s amazing what potential can be realized when government gets out of the way!  Today, banking in Charlotte currently supports over 70,000 jobs, paying the citizens of our metro area approximately $4.6 Billion in wages and benefits.  We have an international airport that is 6th in the world in passengers and people from all over are moving here to make their way in our prosperous region.

 

A Lesson from Charlotte's banking success story

 

America became the freest and wealthiest nation on earth because we were founded with a commitment to God-given human rights and liberty, free markets and limited government.  When we stick to that formula, we prosper as no other people.  When government deviates by meddling, we experience setbacks and hardships. North Carolina has been a shining example of what it means to be a land of opportunity for anyone with a dream, passion and commitment to hard work.

 

But if we forget what made us great, if we continue to allow government at all levels to slowly usurp our freedoms and liberties, we will be destined to experience the destructive forces wreaking havoc in places like New York and California.  States like that are rapidly losing business and citizens to places like North Carolina.  Our people need to stand our ground and insist on liberty and limited government so we can continue in a quality of life and prosperity that makes others want to move here.
 

When I get to Raleigh as your next State Senator, I will evaluate every new bill that comes up for a vote by applying what I call the “LL&P Test.”  I will examine each piece of legislation to determine if it will inhibit anyone’s Life, Liberty, or Pursuit of Happiness.  If so, we as legislators are bound to vote no.  I hope the next session of the General Assembly will be filled with like-minded folks to continue making North Carolina the greatest state in the nation.

"We are a humane and generous people and we accept without reservation our need to help the aged, disable and those unfortunates who, through no fault of their own, must depend on their fellow man.  But we are not going to perpetuate poverty by substituting a government handout for a paycheck.  There is no humanity or charity in destroying self-reliance, dignity, and self respect-- the very substance of moral fiber." 

 

-President Ronald W. Reagan

I am an independent thinking Republican who loves our city and our great state.  By electing me and others like me, we can give the house and senate the super- majority needed to override any veto that Governor Cooper enacts in his last years in office.  To do so,  voters must send two more Republicans to the Senate and three more Republicans to the House than we currently have.  

 

No Way, Your Majesty

What to do when our elected officials act like Emperors

During the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette was famous for one thing.  When she was confronted with the fact that her French subjects were starving, she made the comment: “Let them eat cake.”  This is a famous blunder and over the centuries has come to describe politicians (or anyone in power) who are so out of touch with their people that they make ridiculous statements that show how little self-awareness they have.

It has become clear that our government is being run by officials who have no idea what the people of this country are thinking, doing, and living through. Our President is abandoning fossil fuels in the same way he evacuated Afghanistan.  With no thought whatsoever except to get out as fast as he can!   And not only are his policy decisions destructive to the country, he is making them as if he were a monarch with no accountability.  We cannot afford to have a domestic and foreign policy run by someone who prefers to by-pass Congress and who only serves the hard left of this country.

The same goes for what’s going on in the Governor’s mansion.  Roy Cooper seems to think that after hundreds of years, North Carolina no longer needs a legislative branch, known collectively as the General Assembly.  Emperor Cooper will go down in history as “Veto Roy”!  He has now set the record for the most vetoes of any sitting Governor in our history with 70 vetoes in only five years.  That is more than TWICE as many as the four past Governors… COMBINED.  And WOW does he like executive orders!  He just proclaimed his… ahem… 251st executive order.  Do you see a pattern here?

We are stuck with Roy Cooper until January of 2025 when his final term as Governor is up.  But we can put an end to reign in the election on November 8th.  The only reason he gets away with his vetoes is because there are just enough Democrats in the General Assembly to prevent an override of the vetoes.     Consider Cooper's most recent veto:  the “Free the Smiles Act” (NC Senate bill 173). This bill allows parents to decide whether their child should wear face coverings when attending public schools.  It was passed by a wide margin of bi-partisan support in the State House and Senate.  However, King Cooper didn’t like the fact that it came to him from a Republican controlled legislature, so he vetoed it.  When the bill went back to the General Assembly for override, all the Democrats that had voted for the bill refused to vote to override the veto.  Wow.  Talk about a bunch of frightened robots… isn’t that insane?   We can stop this insanity.  By flipping just a few seats from Democrat to Republican, we can prevent "Emperor Cooper" from overturning the will of the people's legislature in Raleigh. My race for the North Carolina Senate is one such seat that is ripe to flip from Democrat to Republican and I need your help.  Please click the button below to visit our website where you can sign up to help and support our campaign.

"Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time, that we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith."    -President Ronald W. Reagan

I am one of the independent thinking Republicans who do not fear Cooper.  By electing me and others like me, we can give the house and senate the super- majority needed to override any veto that Cooper enacts in his last years in office.  To do so,  voters must send two more Republicans to the Senate and three more Republicans to the House than we currently have.

We can GET THINGS DONE... that represent the will of all the people without the interference of the hyper-partisan “Emperor” who currently inhabits our Governor’s mansion.  Mecklenburg County has finally had enough and is about to start moving back to the right.  40% of Mecklenburg voters are registered “Unaffiliated”.  This November, a large chunk of them and many of the silent but prominent moderate Democrats will be voting Republican.   We all know what happened to Marie Antoinette shortly after she said “let them eat cake.”  Now I am not advocating the guillotine for the out of touch Democrats currently running things from Washington and Raleigh but I am for getting rid of all of them this November at the ballot box!  Maybe then we can have a government that both understands and cares about the people of this country. Please visit our website for more information or to DONATE: www.robesonfornc.com

Defund the Police… wait WHAT?!

 

It’s been almost two years since we first heard the slogan “Defund the Police.”  In those two years, crime has skyrocketed nationwide, and it is not getting any better.  For every action there is a consequence, and this may take the cake for one of the worst ideas in American history (right up there with giving free crack pipes to drug addicts… but I digress). 

The purpose of government is to ensure American’s individual freedoms and the rights that our creator gave us of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  Everything that comes across the desk of any leader should pass what I call the “LL&P test.”  Leaders should always ask themselves: “Does this idea/legislation/executive order/mandate (or whatever) pass the Life, Liberty & Pursuit of Happiness test?”  Defunding the police is not only the worst idea I have seen (out of countless bad ideas I have witnessed over the last year) but fails the LL&P test abysmally.  The very purpose of police is to keep the order and protect citizens rights… to keep citizens’ rights to LL&P and protect the population from others who are hell-bent on their own self-interests which trample the rights of others.  Murder, rape, aggravated assaults, armed robbery and all other horrible deeds criminals commit violate others rights which is why we have police in the first place.  Oh, if you had told me two short years ago that I would actually have to make a case for having a police force, I would have thought you insane.  But here we are.

Many politicians who were all in favor of defunding the police are now seeing poll numbers (not crime statistics) that say voters are against defunding the police, so they are walking their comments back.  Meanwhile, other politicians of the more extreme variety are doubling down on their calls to defund the police.  Imagine… doubling down!

The first time I heard the shocking phrase, I remember immediately trying to think like a police officer.  That is when it occurred to me that governments defunding the police wouldn’t be necessary as they wouldn’t have any police left to defund after a few short years.  When you treat people like garbage whose job is to protect you from harm and create order in a sometimes order-less society, there will be consequences, like it or not.  How have some people in this great country become so ungrateful of an entire group of people who protect them?  How could people expect anything less than lawlessness and skyrocketing crime to be a result of this madness?

Today, the CMPD (Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department) has a need for over 2,100 officers.  As our county continues growing faster than almost any other county in the U.S., the need for police officers is growing exponentially.  The CMPD currently has about 1,800 officers and that number is dropping weekly.  I have spoken to many police officers who are literally counting the days (and sometimes hours) until they can retire.  One example of how bad it is getting is that Charlotte ranks as the 6^th worst city in America for human trafficking and yet has only allocated 4 people (2 detectives) to combat this epidemic of modern-day slavery right here in North Carolina’s largest city.  CMPD is having trouble filling its recruiting classes as nobody wants to start a career that pays far less than other bachelor’s degree careers pay and have to wonder if the people they are going out to protect even appreciate it or worse, will rise up and try to murder them while they are doing their job.

The good news is that the damage done is not irreparable, as the quiet majority of citizens (what I call the “moderate middle”) of this great country are beginning to stand up and show support for our LEO’s (Law Enforcement Officers).  The morale of the police cannot go much lower, but we are learning how important they are to all of us in a whole new way.  This November, you and all your neighbors have the opportunity to elect new leadership in this city, state and nation who will not only FUND the police but support them as they put themselves in harm’s way to protect our freedoms.

I would like to make Charlotte and our state the place where human trafficking goes to die.  State and local law enforcement need the tools and manpower to take the gloves off when it comes to fighting crime and protecting exploited children. Period.  Our leaders in government must make punishment so extreme that the desire to perpetrate the crimes will disappear altogether.  We can start by enforcing the 13^th amendment to the US Constitution.  This amendment bans slavery and human trafficking is exactly that.  We MUST get tough on crime, or we will become a society of anarchy and mob rule.  We are already beginning to see what that dystopian world might look like when we observe the direction of crime in our major cities like Chicago, New York and San Francisco.  But like a cancer, it will spread nationwide.  The time to act is NOW. 

Help me change the course of where we are headed in our city, our state, and our nation this November.  I humbly ask for your vote for the NC State Senate and ask that you consider a donation to my campaign to help me get the word out.  The time to return to a government of, by and for the people has arrived!

If this email has been forwarded to you and you would like to hear more from me, click here:  www.RobesonForNC.com

Mark Robeson

PO Box 11993

Charlotte, NC  28220

www.robesonfornc.com

@robesonfornc

robesonfornc@gmail.com

Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2022

In addition to being the pre-eminent civil rights leader of our time, Reverend Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was a Reverend first. He loved Jesus. His speech on the national mall encapsulated all that we are as Americans by sharing with us his dream of reaching our full potential when we stopped judging people by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He knew that God created all of us equal as His children.  Equal. The same. And that government didn’t give us our rights, its only job was to insure and protect the rights that God had already given us.  

Celebrate Reverend King today as he truly was God's prophet in the mid 20th century. A prophet that changed the way we behaved as a society toward ourselves by seeing and treating each other as we truly are.  Equals and all God's children.  Happy Martin Luther King Day and may God bless you!

Mark Robeson

PO Box 11993

Charlotte, NC  28220

www.robesonfornc.com

@robesonfornc

robesonfornc@gmail.com

HAPPY NEW YEAR... 2022!

 Happy New Year everyone! I’m Mark Robeson, candidate for the North Carolina Senate in Charlotte’s District 42.  If you are like me, you are ready to be “out with the old” and “in with the new” in 2022! For the first time in a long time, I think we can look forward to a new year full of hope and promise! 

 Charlotte (and America as a whole) is the land of new beginnings which is why thousands work so hard to come to our “shining city on a hill” legally every year. To get a fresh start and second chance at life where the only thing holding you back is your own imagination and will to succeed. We have a chance at true renewal this year here in our city and a big part of that is in the voting booth in November. 

 We can change and get that fresh start from the endless spiral that we’ve been caught up in electing people who only care about themselves and destroying what we have worked so hard to build. We can vote for new leadership, both in our city as well as state and nation. 

 Over the course of my campaign, I will talk to you about issues facing North Carolina and Charlotte in particular. Issues like combating a skyrocketing violent crime rate, our education system and how to get it back on track and a state budget that seems to forget that Charlotte is its biggest contributor. 

 I hope you will join me on this trail whether it be financial support, as a volunteer, hosting an event or just putting a sign in your yard or bumper magnet on your car. My fellow Charlotteans, let’s have true renewal in 2022 and put all the ills and mistakes of the past behind us. It’s going to be a great year and may God bless all of you!

Mark Robeson

PO Box 11993

Charlotte, NC  28220

www.robesonfornc.com

@robesonfornc

robesonfornc@gmail.com

Microfinance Commentary 4Q 2011 | A Look Back and the View Ahead

When the concept of microfinance was introduced in South America and most notably Bangladesh in the 1970’s, the concept of loaning money to the working poor to start businesses was inconceivable to the banks of the day. Banks simply saw the poor as “bad credit risks” and quickly dismissed the idea of microcredit as a passing fad that would end in bankruptcy for the institutions making the loans and over indebtedness for the world’s poor. The world is now viewing things a bit differently. Those traditional banks of that time are turning out to be “bad credit risks” themselves and even some investment banks of today are looking at microfinance not as a “fad” but as good business practice.

Today, over 150 million people globally are taking and repaying loans to microcredit organizations around the world. With historic default rates under 2%, microcredit is looking more and more like sound business practice, especially as Europe continues bailing out not only banks but entire countries that haven’t had any luck balancing their budgets and sovereign checkbooks. Americans and Western Europeans alike are finding themselves completely overwhelmed with mortgage and consumer debt and are defaulting on their obligations at a dizzying pace.

The element of microfinance that gives it such a solid standing is that the vast majority of it is NOT in consumer lending but in business loans. Helping the poor start businesses with loans ranging from $50 to a few thousand dollars is just the kick start that the world’s working poor need to get over the hump of poverty and begin a life of taking care of themselves and their families by starting and expanding their small enterprises. The business aspect of this is astonishing… if microfinance lenders are seeing loan paybacks in the 98% range, they can be profitable. This is good for shareholders but even better for the poor. Why? Because they can continue expanding their services through better products, lower interest rates and more branches and staff to service and offer loans.

It is currently estimated that over 1 billion of the world’s poor need a loan and could pay said loan back. And with only 150 million current borrowers, large banks and institutions are seeing “double bottom-line” possibilities. Reaching untapped markets of consumers who pay their loans back is very good business practice. HSBC bank predicts that the need is soaring for microcredit services and that demand is 10 times the current supply.

Microfinance Investment Vehicles are gathering more and more assets to put towards this sound business practice on investing in the poor. With assets over $10 billion USD, there is much room for growth and investment returns range from good to fantastic. Global Microfinance Partners is at the forefront of this emerging investment movement and at the intersection of Impact Investing and helping the poor through this hand-up philosophy. If you want to make a difference with your investment assets, contact us today and join this global movement to change how the world does business and enjoy the possibilities associated with excellent investment returns coupled with impacting the world for good.

Mark Robeson
President
Global Microfinance Partners, LLC
Tel +1 704 332-9390
mark@globalmicrofinancepartners.com
www.globalmicrofinancepartners.com
“Connecting Capital Markets with Village Markets”