How individuals and communities can profit from local investing In the wake of the financial crisis, investors are faced with a stark choice: entrust their hard-earned dollars to the Wall Street casino, or settle for anemic interest rates on savings, bonds, and CDs. Meanwhile, small businesses are being starved for the credit and capital they need to grow. There's got to be a better way.
In Locavesting: The Revolution in Local Investing and How to Profit from It, Amy Cortese takes us inside the local investing movement, where solutions to some of the nation's most pressing problems are taking shape. The idea is that, by investing in local businesses, rather than faceless conglomerates, investors can earn profits while building healthy, self-reliant communities.
- Introduces you to the ideas and pioneers behind the local investing movement
- Profiles the people and communities who are putting their money to work in their own backyards and taking control of their destinies
- Explores innovative investment strategies, from community capital and crowdfunding to local stock exchanges
With confidence in Wall Street and the government badly shaken, Americans are looking for alternatives. Local investing offers a way to rebuild our nest eggs, communities, and, just perhaps, our country.
Table of Contents:
Preface: Starting Anew vii Introduction: Cereal Milk for the Gods xv
Part One The Economics of Local 1
Chapter 1 Motherhood, Apple Pie, and Political Theatre 3
How We Are Failing Our Small Businesses
Chapter 2 Blue Skies, Pipe Dreams, and the Lure of Easy Money 19
Our Financial Legacy and its Unintended Consequences
Chapter 3 Buy Local, Eat Local . . . Invest Local 31
Reconnecting Investors and Businesses
Chapter 4 The Local Imperative 47
Leveling the Playing Field
Part Two Experiments in Citizen Finance 63
Chapter 5 The Last Real Banker? 65
Relationship Banking Is Not Dead – Yet
Chapter 6 The Biggest-Impact Financial Sector You’ve Never Heard Of 79
Community Development Loan Funds Reach Out to Individual Investors
Chapter 7 A Model to LIONize 95
How One Pacifi c Northwest Town Engineered a Quiet Revival
Chapter 8 Community Capital 105
It Takes a Village, or a Police Force, or Perhaps Some Farmers
Chapter 9 Pennies from Many 125
When Social Networking Met Finance
Chapter 10 Slow Money 147
Finance for Foodsheds
Chapter 11 From Brown Rice to Biofuels 159
Co-ops on the Cutting Edge
Chapter 12 The Do-It-Yourself Public Offering 181
The Allure of Public Venture Capital
Chapter 13 Back to the Future 199
The Rebirth of the Local Stock Exchange
Conclusion 221
Notes 227
Acknowledgments 243
Index 245
About the Author :
Amy Cortese (New York, NY) is a financial writer who has spent her career writing about business, finance, environmental issues and food, giving her a unique perspective on how these different realms are intricately linked. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Business Week, The American, Mother Jones, Wired, The DailyBeast.com, and many other publications. Cortese was previously senior vice president at online investment bank Wit Capital in the late 1990s. Throughout her career, including five years as an editor for Business Week covering high-tech and Silicon Valley, she has taken complex topics and translated them into accessible, engaging prose for a general audience.
