Answer the following two questions with no more than 250 words for each answer.

(a) For many years you have been using your local, small-town bank. One day you hear that the bank is about to be purchased by Bank of America. From your vantage point as a retail bank customer, what are the costs and benefits of such a merger?

(b) An argument that comes up from time to time is that credit unions have an advantage over other financial depository institutions in the sense that they are non-profit institutions and, therefore, are exempt from taxes on income that other private depository institutions pay. As a result, credit unions may be able to charge lower rates of interest to borrowers and pay a higher rate to depositors than these other institutions. What do you think of this argument?