By Jeff Milchen and Michael Shuman, December 16, 2011
According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend an average of about $700 per person on holiday season shopping this year and, despite the hype surrounding Black Friday, the busiest shopping week immediately precedes Christmas. But rather than enduring long lines and sparse service at chain stores, we urge you...
The mainstream’s view about small business is nicely encapsulated in the 1960s cult classic, “Bambi Meets Godzilla.” In 90 mesmerizing seconds Tokyo’s all-star quickly dispatches the cute Disney character with a single, pulverizing stomp. Similarly, the conventional wisdom suggests that small businesses, while cute and pleasing for communities, don...
By Michael Shuman
In his 1974 opinion in Geduldig vs. Aeillo, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist asserted that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy was not tantamount to discrimination on the basis of sex. His classic sentence expressing this tortured logic was: “Pregnancy is of course confined to women, but it is in other ways significantly different from...
By Sarah Van Aken
Originally posted on SA VA's blog.
We hear a lot about jobs these days; How the President has a plan to create some; How many people in the United States don’t have them; How most of us are just sitting and waiting for someone, namely the government to do something.
You...
Editor's Note:
BALLE is proud to have Slow Money as a partner of our popular Accelerating Community Capital webinar series. We thank Woody and Slow Money for providing innovative examples how we can reconnect farmers, eaters, and food entrepreneurs by rethinking the way we invest.
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Six Things You Can Do to Accelerate Community Capital
Recommendations from Don Shaffer of RSF Social Finance at BALLE's Accelerating Community Capital workshop on June 14 about what we can each do right now to make a difference.
1. Change your bank--from a big one to a locally based bank...
By Michael H. Shuman, Research & Economic Development Director, BALLE
This list elaborates what broadly could be measured to determine whether a community is progressing toward Local Living Economy goals. Admittedly, some of these indicators would be harder to construct than others, but none are beyond...
Posted by Martin Sorge, BALLE’s Network Services Assistant and volunteer Technology Coordinator for Local First Indiana.
Building Local Living Economy Ties to Education
“Research shows that a movement becomes powerful when its pioneers connect, develop shared goals, build joint platforms for strategic communications and...
Posted by BALLE Executive Director, Michelle Long
One of the most common stories we hear from BALLE networks relates to the new phenomenon of local people calling to say, “I don’t just want to buy from your business members—I want to invest in them!” The opportunity to do so is huge and ripe. Moving money from Wall Street to Main Street and...
Posted by Michelle Long, Executive Director
Nine years ago, BALLE was founded with an audacious goal of building an international network of local economies driven by independent, locally-owned businesses committed to enhancing community life and healthy ecosystems. Today, equipped with incredible success stories from the last decade, we are embarking on a Strategic Planning...
Business leaders from around the country are in Grand Rapids this week to stress the importance of having strong locally owned businesses.
It's part of the tenth annual BALLE Business Conference. BALLE stands for Business Alliance for Local Living Economies. This is the first time the...