BALLE responds to the financial crisis
A number of BALLE thought leaders have published recent articles on the current US financial meltdown:
Michael Shuman on small-mart.org, "Legalize Localization: Post-Meltdown Thoughts," November 11, 2008
"As the global financial system destroys decades' worth of Americans' savings, the relative calm and stability surrounding community-based financial institutions is striking. Locally owned banks and credit unions, which rarely got involved with predatory loans or resold their loans on global markets, are faring remarkably well."
Read more.
David Korten in Yes! "Main Street Before Wall Street," October 2008
"Rather than seeking to restore the health of Wall Street’s predatory private institutions, a proper plan would seek to rid Wall Street of its purely predatory elements while dismantling and reassembling its usable institutions to create a new system accountable to the needs of Main Street."
Read more.
Leslie Christian in Yes! "Finance to Serve the Economy," October 2008
"Our 'financial system' is not equal to the economy. The economy is the exchange of needed goods and services. The financial system exists to facilitate that exchange. Our financial system has far exceeded that rather modest role. We have come to accept the mainstream message that the financial system creates
wealth by creating money. But money isn't wealth at all."
Read more.
Don Shaffer in Green Money Journal, "Notes From the Leading Edge of Social Finance," Fall 2008
"How can we harness the striving energy and entrepreneurial drive of the American people to move more toward collaboration and partnership, instead of maximum individual gain, while honoring the power of free markets?"
Read more.
Michael Shuman on small-mart.org, "Congress Should Expand the Community Reinvestment Act," September 2008
"The key to restoring health and stability back to the finance system is to re-localize – to reintroduce real relationships between lenders and borrowers and between entrepreneurs and investors. Congress would be smart to toughen enforcement of the CRA, especially on any financial institution seeking federal help under the bailout."
Read more.
Judy Wicks in The Sun, "Table for Six Billion, Please," August 2008
"A lot of people feel that the stock market is going to crash and that the US infrastructure is falling apart, partly because we're spending all our money on war instead of things like bridges and a healthcare system for all. And I think when the crash comes, there's going to be a panic. What we're doing now in the local
movement is building the infrastructure before the panic, whether it's caused by the collapse of our economy or by global warming."
