May 24, 2021 Could it provide affordable financial services for underserved families, and, at the same time, shore up its own financial footing? Bank branch closures are an ongoing phenomenon hitting rural and socioeconomically challenged communities particularly hard. So why not provide low-cost financial services to those communities via the post office? It’s a widely trusted organization with more than 30,000 retail locations. Many are in banking deserts. It’s not a new idea. From 1911 to 1967, the Postal Service …
Category: Thoughts & Ramblings
Ideas of financial health have long been rooted in the concept of “financial literacy,” and dominated by educational approaches designed to teach people how to better manage their financial lives. While financial literacy is important, and …
The second annual edition of Boston FinTech Week, organized by FinTech Sandbox, has just successfully concluded. There were 47 separate sessions held in 22 venues across five days. More than 3,000 people registered. They came from …
Periodically, I hear a presentation or read a blog post on the topic of public relations for startups. I often feel the advice given is incomplete, or misguided, or one-size-fits-all, or simply wrong. So here is …
I’ve just returned from the Finovate spring session in northern California. What did I see? Quite a few single occupant automobiles in the HOV lane on Highway 101. Finovate, for the uninitiated, is a grueling two-day …
Earlier this week, Governor Deval Patrick indicated that he will move to ban enforcement of noncompete agreements in Massachusetts. This is one part of a larger piece of legislation designed to promote innovation – job creation …
In 1998, at a technology conference in New York, John (Launny) Steffens, vice chairman of what was then Merrill Lynch & Company, told his audience, ”The do-it-yourself model of investing, centered on Internet trading, should be …
Seeing an iPhone for the first time, Bill Gates is reported to have said, “Oh my God, Microsoft didn’t aim high enough.”* Anyone who has used a Zune, or who, like me, has owned computers running …