The Economist is a strange source Orn. I used to read it as a matter of course for teaching purposes - now it's a google gadget. I still occasionally get 'economic intelligence unit reports' from it and have one from them expanding this article. I was going to bullet-point the findings if anyone showed any interest in this thread. Coops are no more likely to fail than any other kind of business and this is true for businesses avoiding "regular financing". I worked with some guys (years back) running a coop bakery who just wanted to bake the bread as the staff of people's lives (sounds 'corny' but they meant it). What's missing from the Economist is anything on how our real standard model has collapsed - Mom and Pop operations etc. Even the 'Pub' model has gone here. It strikes me that the old worries of lots of small business people were right, but that they didn't understand who and how their profits were being leached. My questions in this are are partly about how we can 'ring-fence' cooperative financing from the corporates and their stooges.
Your clip gets to the heart of some of this - I think some might see it as irrelevant, but it hits right to my feelings. I watched 'District 13' last night (French action movie) - the righteous cop saying 'Liberty, Egalite, Fraternite), the crook brought up hard 'Gas, Water, Electricite'. Happy ending - they stuffed the bureaucracy. What the Economist says nothing about is why the greed model has failed (though they are resuscitating). I suspect this is because it became 'big government by other means'. There is no doubt we can make finance much more democratic, but I wonder if we have conflated 'democratic' with 'big government' in some way. Looking back a bit, Bush was trying to give out taxes to corporate banking without even en equity stake. Brown (much as I despise him) may have averted this - Blair may well have been suckered. We need to get back to credit as a form of trusting to people to work to build and trusting our eyes and senses. I rather strangely think the spreadsheet has a bigger role to play in all this than we realise. Can't explain in the space here. On 25 Sep, 21:14, ornamentalmind <[email protected]> wrote: > Yes Neil, there is a left backlash afoot today. Rand must be turning > over in her… > > For ‘the rest of the story’, see: > > http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14493098 > > Even Michael Moore is reporting some more egalitarian views near the > end of his interview. > > http://www.democracynow.org/2009/9/24/after_20_years_of_filmmaking_on > > On Sep 25, 12:01 pm, archytas <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Devices such as collateralised debt obligations and credit-default > > swaps have turned out to be spun out of invisible thread. This was so > > blindingly obvious the film ‘Pi’ was made years ago. Modelling > > through the Gaussian copula techniques never built in a market > > portfolio of investors using the said technique, and there was no > > stress on how secure such a system was from bonus-mad bandits prepared > > to ignore the very risks they could conceal (thus wrecking the > > model). Social finance, a movement based on the belief that financial > > innovation can be used directly to help society’s neediest people is > > now on the rise. > > There’s just been a conference in San Francisco for SoCap09, dedicated > > to building “social capital markets”. The event was abuzz with novel > > ideas such as a “social stock exchange” and “sustainable hedge > > funds”. The Clinton Global Initiative in New York, the Global Impact > > Investing Network (GIIN) is due to be launched. This is, in effect, a > > commitment to create a new asset class—impact investing—yielding a > > financial return alongside a social or environmental benefit. The > > network’s 20 or so members include big banks (Citigroup, Deutsche > > Bank, JPMorgan), philanthropic institutions (such as the Bill & > > Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation), the Acumen > > Fund, which invests charitable donations in firms supplying health > > care, clean water and so forth in Africa and India, and Generation > > Investment Management, a green-tinged fund manager co-founded by Al > > Gore. The GIIN’s goal is to share information on what works and what > > does not, to agree on common language and measures of performance, and > > to lobby for helpful laws and regulations. The creation of just such > > an organisation was a priority set out earlier this year in a report > > by the Monitor Institute, the research arm of Monitor, a firm of > > management consultants. If this group succeeds, the report argued, > > within five to ten years impact investing could grow to $500 billion, > > around 1% of the world’s total assets under management in 2008. > > The rising interest in social finance is the product of several > > trends. First, the financial industry and its clients spy a way of > > making money and doing good at the same time. Many impact investments > > are in emerging economies, which are expected to grow faster than > > developed ones. They may be uncorrelated with other assets and thus > > offer diversification and reduced risk. Impact investments such as the > > Calvert Community Investment Note (a bond) have performed relatively > > well during the recent crisis, fuelling demand for them. Bankers also > > detect a chance to give their image a badly needed polish. > > Philanthropy plays a part too—especially, it seems, for super-rich > > investors. Second, more people want to do well by doing good. > > Specialised intermediaries have sprung up, including several “social > > investment banks”, such as Total Impact Advisors, which is supported > > by Calvert Foundation, a pioneer of impact investing, and Social > > Finance, recently founded in Britain. Social-enterprise clubs are now > > among the biggest student organisations in leading business schools. > > Third, there is a growing demand for private capital and skills to be > > tapped to supply the basics of life and to get small businesses going. > > Government spending and philanthropy are not enough. Fourth, > > governments are providing encouragement. America’s controversial > > Community Reinvestment Act stimulated investment in poor > > neighbourhoods (too much, critics say). The State Department is > > expected to give financial support for the GIIN’s efforts to create > > useful measures of social impact. The British government has given tax > > breaks and introduced more helpful regulations for private investment > > in social projects, as recommended by the Social Investment Task Force > > it established in 2000. In the Netherlands legislation has encouraged > > green investing. > > > None of this is really 'new'. Some of us were active in these areas > > in the 1980s. Looking at some of the people involved now gives me the > > jitters, but my guess is these are the moves we need to make. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
