----- Forwarded Message ----- From: John Fullerton <[email protected]> To: Robert Searle <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, 26 March 2012, 23:15 Subject: Celebrating the Signals of Deep Systemic Transformation To forward this email, click here. Celebrating the Signals of Deep Systemic Transformation As we look to transform our economic and financial systems to support a more just and restorative economy, we at Capital Institute are aware of how much we have to learn from observing the resiliency of natural systems. And the more we learn about the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council project as we undertake the research for our upcoming Field Guide study, the more we observe parallels between it and what ecologists call an “ecotone.” An ecotone is a transitional zone between contrasting habitats–a forest and a grasslands, for example–where tremendous creative destruction, rich biodiversity, and continuous ecosystem rebalancing known as “the edge effect” occur. But, as Bill Reed, one of the founders of the restorative development movement, explains: “Edges are about more than simply re-balancing—they are about increased potential of relationship and exchange. The possibility of life happens at edges; edges are the bridge and arbiter of relationships—the more edges we have, the richer the potential to improve the resilience of life.” We have come to see the CMRC as just such a vital “bridge,” in this case between the old industrial paradigm and an emerging one where advanced manufacturing will play a central role. Read more ________________________________ Buckminster Fuller Challenge Juror Capital Institute’s John Fullerton has been selected as a juror for the 2012 Buckminster Fuller Challenge, an annual international design challenge awarding $100,000. We are grateful for the opportunity to bring attention to the legacy of the challenge’s namesake. As one of the first engineers to contemplate the way design interacts with nature and society, he sought to create a world that worked for everyone through thoughtful innovation and deeply-considered policy. Bucky, as he liked to be called, contributed to the thinking of many of the earliest systems thinkers and understood the ideas at the core of system theory: “There are no solids. There are no things. There are only interfering and non-interfering patterns operative in pure principle, and principles are eternal.” And that, in many cases, the outcomes from “whole systems [cannot be predicted] by the behavior of their parts taken separately.” Stay up-to-date on Capital Institute’s participation with the Buckminster Fuller Challenge at This Week at Capital Institute. What We're Reading Former Goldman Sachs VP and now Demos Senior Fellow Wallace Turbeville lays out the reasons that the concentration of the banking sector leads to the misallocation of capital, not just to too-big-to-fail. Breaking Up the Big Banks - The Dallas Fed Weighs In ________________________________ Comment of the Week “As long as the system can be gamed, and it can be - BIG TIME - we won't have statespeople. Change the system to one that cannot be gamed, and the gangsters will vanish.” - Rachel Conerly, Financial Statesmanship for a New Economy ________________________________ Quote of the Week “I don't think of priorities, because all of the big problems and all of the solutions are interlocked.” - EO Wilson To unsubscribe from this email list, click here. 73 Arch Street, 3rd Floor Greenwich, CT 06830 United States