Giving thanks to our 8,000 readers
V.2, N.11
There are many things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving – among them, the greatly reduced danger from COVID-19, a national commitment to accelerate climate investments through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), and an exploding global interest in all forms of local investment – but honestly I’m mostly thankful for you, our 8,000 readers. You have continued to send us (Sophia, Wendy, and me) nice notes about our content and great suggestions for stories and articles to share. Thank you!
Thank you for your engagement on investment crowdfunding. Below is a piece from Crowdfund Capital Advisors summarizing some of the recent challenges the industry has faced, as jittery investors have been digesting bad news about inflation and stock markets.
Thank you for your interest in local ownership, which is the flip side of local investment. We have a story in this issue about one of the few examples of a community-owned sports team – Minnesota’s Aurora FC Soccer Club. (The other example, of course, is the Green Bay Packers.)
Thank you for your passion for worker-owned cooperatives. Below are articles about new worker cooperative initiatives in California (thanks to a new state law) and Colorado (with the support of Kaiser Permanente).
Thanks for your support for the concept of public banking. New York, you’ll read below, the state with the biggest concentration of global capital on Earth, is close to passing an enabling law for public banks statewide.
Thank you, in advance, for showing your gratitude for friends and family by buying this year’s gifts at local retailers. A recent study from Civic Economics and the American Booksellers Association, summarized below, shows that every dollar spent at a local bookstore generates four times as much economic activity locally as a dollar spent on Amazon.
Finally, thank you for enabling our success. In a recent interview I did on the website Subkit, I also share my dreams about where The Main Street Journal goes from here. You can read the piece here – and thanks in advance for sharing it, and our newsletter, with others.
We will see you again the week after Thanksgiving.
– Michael Shuman, Publisher, The Main Street Journal
NEWS
Investment Crowdfunding October Results, Crowdfund Capital Advisors (November 2)
Interview With Community-Owned Soccer Club Minnesota Aurora FC, The Center for Community Ownership (November 9)
Worker Co-ops Welcome The California Employee Ownership Act, Co-op News (November 2)
Denver’s Center For Community Wealth Building Accelerates Growth Of Worker Cooperatives, Fifty by Fifty (October 3)
How Activists Are Trying To Change The Way Banking Gets Done, YES! Magazine (November 9)
Unfulfilled: Amazon And The American Retail Landscape, American Booksellers Association in collaboration with Civic Economics (November 2022)
PARTNER VOICES
Highlights From Kate Raworth's 42nd Annual E.F. Schumacher Lecture, Schumacher Center for a New Economics (November 15)
California Passes Employee Ownership Act: Lessons From An Advocacy Campaign, Democracy Collaborative (October 26)
Social Enterprises Benefit From Adjustments To Regulation Crowdfund Limits, Cutting Edge Capital (October 21)
EVENTS
Democratizing Work: The Role, Opportunities, and Challenges of Worker Cooperatives in the US – Webinar. Thursday, November 17, 2-3:15pm ET. This is part of a 3-part series, Employee Ownership’s Moment: Conversations to Advance Policy and Practice, hosted by the Aspen Institute. In this first conversation, we will be discussing worker-owned cooperatives in the US including their history, the research on the benefits and challenges of cooperatives, the role they play in our economy and democracy, how they fit within the wider field of employee ownership, and ideas to support their growth. Register here.
Creating An Economy That Works For Everyone – Webinar. Tuesday, November 29, 1pm ET. Hilary Abell and Alison Lingane, Co-founders of Project Equity, along with NPR reporter and host Stacey Vanek Smith will discuss why Employee Ownership is a highly impactful yet largely untapped solution for some of the most pressing problems of our time. They will also explore what government, business and community stakeholders can do to catalyze increased uptake of Employee Ownership. Register here.
ICYMI
20 Major Studies Showing Taxpayer Subsidies To Businesses Don’t Work, Reinvent Albany (October 2022)
Employee Ownership Finds Its Way Into Federal Legislation, Fifty by Fifty (August 25)
Lessons Learned From Community Sourced Capital, People’s Economy Lab (August 2018)
Community-Based Economic Development Is The Key To A Strong Pandemic Recovery, The Conversation (November 6)
JOBS BOARD
Fair Food Network is hiring multiple positions on their impact investing team.
Mission Driven Finance is hiring multiple positions.
BECOME A MAIN STREET CHAMPION
Have you always wanted to start a local investment club? A website of local investment offerings in your community? A local investment study group? Whatever your interest or ambition, we invite you to “go public” to help others in your region find you, scheme with you, and start a local investment movement in your community. Our goal is to identify dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of Main Street Champions like you across America. We already have Main Street Champions across the U.S., from San Luis Obispo, CA to Providence, RI, and even Australia! Together, we can move our hard-earned savings from Wall Street back into our communities. Fill out the intake survey below to join this growing cohort!
SOME OF MSJ’s VINTAGE ISSUES
About The Main Street Journal
The Main Street Journal aims to catalyze the movement of $50 trillion from Wall Street to Main Street to facilitate economic development and economic justice. It’s sponsored by the National Coalition for Community Capital, with a grant from the Heron Foundation. We welcome feedback about everything, from our design to content. And we welcome suggestions of other groups to involve as partners, and other information to include. Please send ideas to Sophia Leswing at sophia@main-street-journal.com.
PARTNERS
We welcome any nonprofit or for-profit committed to local investment as a partner. If your organization is interested, please contact Sophia Leswing at sophia@main-street-journal.com.