Move Your Money
Bank of America, Citigroup, and JP Morgan Chase rank as the top-three financiers of mountaintop-removal coal mining and coal-fired power plants in the US, according to a report by the Sierra Club, Rainforest Action Network, and BankTrack. If your organization…
Divesment from fossil fuels: tips for activists
The process of divesting from fossil fuels follows a certain timeline. (What is Divestment from Fossil Fuels? It’s basically un-investing from oil, gas and coal.) And where an organization is on this timeline determines the type of action, talking points, and answers…
What is Divestment from fossil fuels?
Divestment is the opposite of investment: you can think of it like “uninvesting.” To divest from fossil fuels means to sell all the oil and gas company stocks in your investment portfolio (or your university’s portfolio, or your faith community’s…
The Econ Puzzle’s Debut
This week marked the trimphant wrap-up of our Human Ecology class at Otis College of Art and Design. It was a great group of students this semester, and their enthusiasm shone through in their final projects. We celebrated with people…
Economic Descent, hopefully with skillful means
This post is in response to one by Rob Hopkins, which was in response to one byDavid Holmgren. In case I don’t use sufficiently ‘skillful means,’ please let me begin with stating: I am not advocating for intentionally creating an…
A Gratitude Economy
In many spiritual circles, it is popular to talk about gratitude. Gratitude encompasses much more than a quickie “thank you.” It implies a much deeper state of mind, one that practitioners realize will position you to receive even greater abundance.…
Investing for Retirement
Conventional investments: Virtually all conventional investments (money market, 401K, stocks, etc.) are tied to the dependent-upon-growth mainstream economy and are thus fully embroiled in the issues discussed in Part I of this document. The idea of an investment-cash-funded retirement came…
8. Redefine “Success”
In the past, “success” has been defined by things we can count: our bank accounts, accumulated possessions, number of offspring, the square footage of our houses. It has been defined by fame, power, busy-ness and packed calendars. Our conventional economic…
Social Enterprise
The concept of “social enterprise” has been gathering traction in the U.S. It’s kind of like a hybrid of the business world and the nonprofit world. In its most basic form, there’s the example of a gift store within a…
6. Community-based investment
The shift from a growth economy to economic contraction has turned our concepts of “profit” and “income” upside down. The idea of “investment” has similarly been radically altered. In the old paradigm, when we thought about “investments,” it meant turning…