Just thinking, no answers yet....
UPDATE: I figured the bunnies would have some ideas.
UPDATE 2: KQED's California Report shows other people thinking about the same thing.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Occupy Wall Street, and I have one-seventh of the vote over several hundred million dollars
My light-speed brain took over a month to put the two issues in the blog headline together. Santa Clara Valley Water District has several hundred million dollars in financial reserves. I wonder if there's anything financially responsible that the Water District can do with the voters' financial reserves, in light of the abuse of the financial system by Wall Street titans.
9 comments:
Dear Anonymous,
UPDATE: The spambots got clever so the verification is back. Apologies
Some of the regulars here are having trouble telling the anonymice apart. Please add some distinguishing name to your comment such as Mickey, Minnie, Mighty, or Fred.
You can stretch the comment box for more space
The management.
Miniloans?
ReplyDeleteNot micro as everything is more expen$ive in California...
Alt energy/conservation/efficiency to the extent state law allows. It sounds like you're not a MUD, so what's possible along those lines?
ReplyDeleteStart a water-district bank modeled on the state bank of North Dakota.
ReplyDeleteRight, but as I recall, aren't most of those reserves restricted by law to specific uses? It's not like there's millions laying around you can do anything you want with. Right?
ReplyDeleteFar be it from Eli to tell you what to do, but something that might be a win/win is to invest some of it with the local credit unions, with the understanding that it will be used to make mortgage loans to members decreasing their interest payments.
ReplyDeleteWith rates for Treasuries and CDs being ~ 1%, 4% on a mortgage looks pretty good.
Ask your lawyer and general manager. They should direct you to Cal. Gov. Code section 53600 et seq., which governs local agency investments.
ReplyDelete(lawyer mouse)
David - we don't have the capacity to supervise microcredit, but maybe we could invest in someone who does microcredit (although I think even the big boys fool around a bit in that space).
ReplyDeleteSteve - not sure what you mean - invest our money in those fields? Sounds a little scary, but I should learn more about our investments. I think generally they're either pretty safe or pretty liquid.
JCH - got any more info?
Eli - I had a similar thought.
Anon - thanks!
Hold it with a credit union? Or start a credit union?
ReplyDeleteBrian --- More seriously now, you might care to have a conversation with
ReplyDeleteThayer Watkins
SAN JOSÉ STATE UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT
San Jose, California
95192-0114
whom I suggest based on his use of Levy stable distributions for rainfall but also seems somehow connected to a State of California planning agency.