[P2P-F] Fwd: Legalize local investing! - US

Sat Nov 12 08:39:41 CET 2011

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dante-Gabryell Monson <dante.monson at gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 6:30 AM
Subject: Fwd: Legalize local investing! - US
To: econowmix at googlegroups.com

excerpt :

"If we were to legalize investment in local businesses, including co-ops,
farms, and community investment funds, Wall Street would be history. And
the good news is that it’s on the verge of happening."

*WANT TO HELP LEGALIZE LOCAL INVESTMENT? Then...*

   - Sign the Legalize Local Investment!
petition<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=56ee509507&e=5d490d0c5a>
   - ask your Senators<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=2ed850f20e&e=5d490d0c5a>
to
   support The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act
   - Attend or support the Occupy SEC
rally<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=7d9f3d65f3&e=5d490d0c5a>
on
   November 17th in Washington, D.C.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Shuman, Post Carbon Institute <newsletters at postcarbon.org>
Date: Thu, Nov 10, 2011 at 9:30 PM
Subject: Legalize local investing!
To: dante.monson at gmail.com

     Email not displaying correctly? View it in your
browser.<http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=7c0963a52d&e=5d490d0c5a>

      Dear ,

I personally support the spirit of Occupy Wall Street, especially the
spotlight it has cast on the shocking level of inequality in our country.
But the movement oddly conveys a very mainstream message that Wall Street
can and should be fixed. Just clean up our existing financial institutions
– make them more accountable, honest, transparent – and all will be well.
Really?

I think it would be smarter to end our relationship with Wall Street. Just
say “no.” There’s another 99% that begs our attention – the 99% of
Americans who are not permitted to invest in local small business. A
growing body of evidence suggests that these are the businesses that are
essential for growing jobs, incomes, equality, entrepreneurship,
smart-growth, and green communities.

If we were to legalize investment in local businesses, including co-ops,
farms, and community investment funds, Wall Street would be history. And
the good news is that it’s on the verge of happening.
 *WANT TO HELP LEGALIZE LOCAL INVESTMENT? Then...*

   - Sign the Legalize Local Investment!
petition<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=56ee509507&e=5d490d0c5a>
   - ask your Senators<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=2ed850f20e&e=5d490d0c5a>to
support The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act
   - Attend or support the Occupy SEC
rally<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=7d9f3d65f3&e=5d490d0c5a>on
November 17th in Washington, D.C.

 For decades, we’ve lived under an oppressive system of investment
apartheid. The 1% who are millionaires (known under federal securities law
as “accredited investors”) are free to invest in anything they choose. With
the referees in their back pockets and all kinds of home-court advantages,
it’s easy for them to win the wealth-accumulating game. The other 99% of us
are stuck with the slim pickings of the Fortune 500 public companies listed
on Wall Street – the companies least connected to the well being of our
communities.

Before small businesses can accept investment from the 99%, they have to
spend many tens of thousands of dollars on legal, accounting, and
government filing fees. While most of us would like to invest in small
businesses in our community, practically speaking, securities laws make it
impossible.

This is a far more extreme big-business bias than exists in banking, where
we can easily move our money to local banks and credit unions. Worse, *we
have four times more money in Wall Street investments – stocks, bonds,
mutual funds, pension funds, and insurance funds – than we do in banks *. *We
are the ones fueling the multinational companies we distrust.*

If we could overhaul securities laws that we enacted during the early
Jurassic Period, local businesses could be fabulous investments. They are
the most important job producers in the economy. They account for more than
half of private sector jobs. They are increasingly competitive – so much so
that their their share of the national workforce actually growing.
Stunningly, sole proprietorships are three times as profitable as
C-corporations.

For the first time in decades, reform is finally possible. A remarkable
coalition has emerged bringing together leaders of the Tea Party and the
Obama Administration. They
agree<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=cf523ea726&e=5d490d0c5a>that
investment apartheid should be abolished. Republican Representative
Patrick McHenry of North Carolina is leading the charge in the House to
legalize small businesses raising money through large numbers of small
investments (aka “crowdfunding”), with minimal paperwork, for companies
raising less than $1 million. Recent changes in his bill (HR 2930, The
Entrepreneur Access to Capital
Act<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=d0abb4a772&e=5d490d0c5a>)
actually make it very similar to reforms President Obama proposed in his
jobs package in September.

On November 3, HR 2930 passed the House with overwhelming support (407-17).
But passage of crowdfunding legislation is still uncertain. Senate
Republicans may be afraid to support anything that Obama has proposed as
part of his jobs package. And many Democrats are defending the status quo,
because they are understandably afraid of deregulating the financial
industry. What Dems don’t appreciate, however, is that *the key to Wall
Street reform is to ratchet up regulation at the top and loosen things a
bit for the 99% at the bottom*.

The Occupy Wall Street protestors could make a critical difference here.
They – and we – should occupy Congress until they legalize local
investment. Once that occurs, we’ll see thousands of small companies owned
by their customers. We’ll see the emergence of local stock exchanges that
will provide investors with liquidity. We’ll see mutual funds with local
securities (none exist today), and local pension funds.

Consider what happens when the first trillion dollars of our long-term
savings move from Wall Street to Main Street. Stock prices of giant
multinational public companies will go down, and the price of local
business shares will go up. A stampede of investors moving their money
could follow. We might quickly see the largest transfer of capital in human
history, from increasingly untrustworthy Fortune 500 companies to the local
businesses we care about.

Millions of Americans have already changed their buying habits to buy
local. Now’s our chance to invest locally too! My dream is to transform the
place into a quaint Big Apple tourist site, where we can pay our respects
to the mistakes of the 20th century that we thankfully stopped making in
the 21st.
 *LEGALIZE LOCAL INVESTMENT*

   - Sign the Legalize Local Investment!
petition<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=b322cded0d&e=5d490d0c5a>
   - ask your Senators<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=b9628185eb&e=5d490d0c5a>to
support The Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act
   - Attend or support the Occupy SEC
rally<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=9c9ea15cf1&e=5d490d0c5a>on
November 17th in Washington, D.C.

 Yours,

Michael Shuman

*Michael Shuman is director of research for Cutting Edge
Capital<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=d28f29137f&e=5d490d0c5a>,
director of research and economic development at the Business Alliance for
Local Living Economies<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=95346ff303&e=5d490d0c5a>,
and a Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute. He is the author of **Local
Dollars, Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street to Main
Street and Achieve Real
Prosperity*<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=bf0d27e754&e=5d490d0c5a>
*, forthcoming in 2012 from Chelsea Green and Post Carbon Institute.*
  --
unsubscribe<http://postcarbon.us1.list-manage2.com/unsubscribe?u=311db31977054c5ef58219392&id=f78cfc4539&e=5d490d0c5a&c=7c0963a52d>
dante.monson at gmail.com from this update.

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