The Revolution in Local Investing
TM
“An inspiring look at what local businesses can achieve.”
—JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, and 2001 Nobel Laureate
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy, generating eighty percent of jobs and half of GDP. They also create the foundation for healthy, diverse neighborhoods and strong local economies.
So why are we starving these vital enterprises?
Locavesting is a call to rethink the way we invest, so that we support the small businesses that create jobs and healthy, resilient communities. Just as “Buy Local” campaigns have found that a small shift in purchasing from chains to locally owned enterprises can reap outsized benefits for a community, so, too, can a small shift in our investment dollars. The book explores the extraordinary experiment in citizen finance taking place across the country, from Brooklyn, NY to Honolulu, HI and dozens of towns in between, as communities take back control of their financial destinies while revitalizing the communities they call home. These citizens are at the vanguard of a grassroots revolution that journalist Amy Cortese calls “locavesting.”
In Locavesting, you’ll meet these pioneers and learn about the new models they are creating—some new, some as old as capitalism itself—to put their money to work locally, from community ownership to crowdfunding to the rebirth of local stock exchanges. In the process, they are rebuilding their nest eggs, their communities, and, just perhaps, the country.
Forget CDOs and exotic derivatives. Isn’t this the type of financial innovation we should be encouraging?
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Praise for Locavesting
“Buy this book before the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) bans it! Locavesting demolishes the myth that the best investment options lie in the financial-doomsday machine we call Wall Street.
Fasten your belt for a mind-blowing journey where you will learn about dozens of highly profitable community investment opportunities. Amy Cortese takes you on a breathtaking ride.”
—MICHAEL H. SHUMAN, author of The Small-Mart Revolution and Going Local
“Investing locally makes sense as long as you do it with your eyes wide open. And this book is a realistic up-to-the-minute exploration of the field. After all, it was the local community that invested in Ben & Jerry’s—and it worked out pretty well for them.”
—BEN COHEN, cofounder of Ben & Jerry’s
“Simple, brilliant and well informed. Good for what ails us as a country and a society.”
—TED LEONSIS, former president and
vice chairman of America Online
“If Michael Pollan changed the way you think about food, let Amy Cortese change the way you think about finance.”
—JAY LEE, founder & CEO, Smallknot
“An inspiring look at what local businesses can achieve.”
—JOSEPH E. STIGLITZ, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, and 2001 Nobel Laureate
by Amy Cortese
Amy Cortese is an award-winning journalist who writes about business, food and environmental issues. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Business Week, Mother Jones, Portfolio, The Daily Beast and many other publications.
Did you know....
A dollar spent at a local independent business, on average, generates three times more local economic benefit than a dollar spent at a corporate-owned chain.
According to the GAO, a quarter of the country’s largest companies paid no federal income tax in 2005 on more than $1 trillion in revenue.
Just 1% of the money flying around the stock market goes to funding businesses through public stock offerings; the rest is trading and speculation.
Forty percent of agricultural startups are denied financing, according to the Carrot Project. And more than half of farmers surveyed by the National Young Farmers Coalition cited lack of capital as their biggest obstacle.
The median IPO size 20 years ago was $10 million; in 2009, it was $140 million. The IPO market is effectively closed to 80% of companies that need it.
If Americans shifted just 1 percent of their investments to locally owned companies, more than $260 billion would be injected into the Main Street economy - without costing the government a dime!
These 9 midwestern cops saved their town’s 111-year old bakery and helped revitalize downtown Clare, Michigan.
Published by John Wiley & Sons
Paul Muccino
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Copyright © 2011 by Amy Cortese. All rights reserved.
Book Club?
See our discussion guide here.
We’ve witnessed the failings of a unfettered free market system, tallied in lost jobs, stagnant wages, rising inequality and languishing Main Streets. Isn’t it time for a back up plan?
Upcoming Appearances
July 12: Amy will discuss recent crowdfunding developments at the Directors of Technology Transfer for the Southeast Region. Mandarin Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia
June 25: Amy will discuss local investing and innovation at an event hosted by the Waterloo Regional Enterprise Network. Waterloo, Ontario
Details here.
June 19: Amy will address the Erie Canalway National Heritage Center’s
“Unlocking Investment Opportunities in Your Downtown.”
Schenectady, NY
May 5: Amy will sign books at the Food Book Fair from 1:00-1:20pm at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn, NY
Details here.
April 22-24: Amy speaks at the Michigan Small Town and Rural Development Conference, Thompsonville, MI
Details here.
March 24: Amy, along with Good-B, will be giving a workshop at the Hello Etsy conference in Brooklyn NY, entitled “Get Funded Without Selling Your Soul”
Sunday at 3:45pm
Details here.
March 14: Amy will be the featured speaker at Buffalo First’s “Get The Rust Out” series. Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, Buffalo, NY
7:00-9:00pm
Details here.
Feb 22: Amy will be a keynote speaker at Rome Confluence, “two days of inspiration” in Rome, GA 8:45am.
Details here.