I gave a talk to the Student Investment Committee at Middlebury College on April 14th. Dr. Scott Pardee, the faculty advisor to the SIC, invited me to talk about Yankee Farm Credit and "The 5 C's of Credit." I also talked about GSEs and employment opportunities in the Farm Credit System. And I talked briefly about mathematical risk models, which is something that I blogged about last fall.
The talk was just a few weeks after our 2009 annual report was printed, and I was pleased to use the cover of that annual report to make a point about the first "C" of credit: character. When you are a lender, it is important to know your borrower. At Yankee Farm Credit we are fortunate to know multiple generations of many of our borrowers, as in the case of Monument Farms Dairy—featured on the cover of our 2009 annual report. Perhaps the students will remember not only about character but also about how the Farm Credit System moves money from Wall Street to rural America, because Monument Farms has provided milk to Middlebury College for over 50 years.
In his announcement for my talk, Dr. Pardee wrote: "Yankee Farm Credit is a wonderful example of sound risk management." Congratulations to the board and staff for earning that compliment!
