- Efficiency ·
Why the US Should Join the Momentum Building in Support of a “Speculator” Tax
On April 15, I made a statement at the Press Club in Washington, DC.,
- Future of Finance ·
INET Conference Boggles the Mind
No doubt, we’ve all been to conferences that are both stimulating and exhausting at the same time. The George Soros backed Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET) inaugural conference that took
- Future of Finance ·
Welcome
Welcome to our blog, “The Future of Finance”. Here you will find expert opinions and analysis on the critical challenges of finance in the context of forging a just and sustainable economic system. We will highlight fundamental issues requiring long-term attention, and we will provide commentary on the financial events and issues of the day looked at through a Capital…
- Archives ·
When and Why Foundations Should Blur the Line Between Profit-making and Charity
A recent New York Times article on program-related investing highlighted the $10 million equity stake the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation took in Liquidia Technologies. Some in the foundation world are concerned that the investment blurred the line between profit-making and charity. We and our Braintrust advisor Stephen Viederman say foundations should blur those lines—as long as they deploy their endowment assets when they do so. We would…
- Archives ·
What’s New at the Evergreen Cooperatives
We spoke last week with Ted Howard, co-founder with Gar Alperovitz of the Democracy Collaborative and a key strategist of The Evergreen Cooperatives, the subject of our second Field Guide to Investing in a Regenerative Economy study. Evergreen is a remarkable experiment in anchor-institution-based cooperative enterprise, rooted in sustainable practices and dedicated to true wealth building in inner city Cleveland. Ted told us…
- Archives ·
TIAA-CREF’s Global Social and Community Investment Group
July 2, 2012 update—TIAA-CREF’s Global Social and Community Investments Group was created in 2006, after a survey TIAA-CREF conducted of its clients indicated that the core values that guided their investment-decision-making turned out to be human rights, community investment, and environmental sustainability. Since we posted the profile of TIAA-CREF’s Global Social and Community Investment Group in June 2010, Amy Muska…
- Archives ·
Third Millennium Economy Report Released
Economics, Finance, Governance, and Ethics for the Anthropocene, a working paper of the Capital Institute-housed Third Millennium Economy project, was released last Thursday for public review in advance of the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. As the civil society groups and grassroots activists meet now and world leaders arrive later this week, the paper is a flag in the…
- Archives ·
The Importance of Ideas
While on a panel with John Fullerton last week at the BALLE conference, Gar Alperovitz offered a powerful thought on the importance of ideas which we subsequently asked him to capture in writing. Here is his response: “Rarely do important new ideas matter in politics. What usually matters is the momentum of entrenched power…. But not always! Sometimes–when the old ideas no…
- Archives ·
Tackling Climate Change in the Absence of Global Leadership
If the Rio + 20 Earth Summit demonstrated little else it was that national, regional, community, and company initiatives are fast filling the vacuum left by the dismal failure of global leadership to effectively address climate change and other ecosystem emergencies. These ad hoc approaches present opportunities as well as challenges to the institutions and economies that are the first…
- Archives ·
Rethinking Federal Policymaking for the Small Urban Manufacturing Sector
In researching our soon-to-be-released Field Guide study of the Manufacturing Renaissance Council we discovered an illuminating 2011 Brookings Institution white paper, “The Federal Role in Supporting Urban Manufacturing,” co-authored by Joan Byron and Nisha Mistry. The paper focuses exclusively on the emergence of Small Urban Manufacturers (SUMs) as a trend that is transforming the American manufacturing landscape. SUMs are defined as urban…
- Archives ·
Robert Massie Appointed President and CEO of the New Economics Institute
Former Executive Director of Ceres Robert Massie has been appointed CEO and President of the New Economics Institute effective March 19. Massie led the launch of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) from the helm at Ceres. As President of NEI, Massie will oversee the upcoming Strategies for a New Economy conference where the Capital Institute will host a track on…
- Future of Finance ·
Rose Smart Growth Investment Fund
“To repair the fabric of cities, towns and communities while preserving the land around them” is the stated mission of Jonathan Rose Companies. It may sound like an unusually lofty, exceedingly idealistic goal for a real estate company. But Jonathan Rose Companies is more than about developing real estate. Founded in 1989 by a third-generation developer who sought to mix…
- Archives ·
Responding to Occupy Wall Street
Photo credits: Léopold Lambert of The Funambulist [view:OWS_Page]
- Archives ·
PRI Makers and M4M Merge into the Mission Investors Exchange
Since we posted our profile of More for Mission (M4M) in June 2010, the organization grew to a total membership of 96 foundations. In May 2012 M4M and Program Related Investment Makers Network (PRI) combined to form the Mission Investors Exchange. The merger of the PRI Makers Network and More for Mission was the end result of a long-standing relationship between the…
- Archives ·
Peter Victor at INET
At the Institute for New Economic Thinking conference earlier this month, Capital Institute colleague and Braintrust member Peter Victor gave the conference a sneak peek at his work with Tim Jackson on an ecological economics model of rapid economic growth, an economic crash, and a managed low-growth economy. He argues that the early findings suggest a steady-state economy may be…