In praise of BB&T

In praise of a bank?

I first heard of BB&T through an Econtalk podcast, in which John Allison spoke about values.

I was highly impressed by John, and after hearing mention of the company reading list in the interview, and not being able to find any information on this in the aether, I contacted John. In short order I received the reading list and some material from him. I was quite struck by his taking the time to respond to me - even a small personalized note that was signed by him, not a "digital" signed stock letter.

Later, I noticed that there are BB&T chairs to help support free market economics research programs.

John's message resonates, and the actions of BB&T are where their mouth are.

BB&T is a great business in the classic sense - they maximize not solely and abstractly profit, but value. The cartoon version of maximizing only profit falls flat under a moments consideration, as profit is linked to so many other aspects of behaviour and cannot be "cleanly" pursued (and life would be boring if it could be!).

If BB&T had a branch near me I would move my business to them - if you have the option, I suggest you consider BB&T: what one wants in a bank is prudence and integrity. All the evidence strongly suggests that BB&T has just those characteristics.

I think I will re- listen to the EconTalk podcast discussion with John. On a personal note I listened to the podcast during a particularly difficult time in my life, and John's message - and his response to my inquiry - struck me in a very positive way, it will be interesting to see how the discussion sounds on a second listen...

Thank you John. Enjoy your retirement!