From the Mosaic press release: OAKLAND, CA — (April 8, 2013) Mosaic, an online marketplace that connects investors to high-quality solar projects, just received approval from securities regulators to offer $100 Million worth of solar investments to residents of California. … ‘California has always been a leader in solar energy. We’re thrilled that now any [...]
economics – business – finance
Eleven economists speak out on jobs and job creation: James Boyce: There’s a link between the concentration of income at the top, concentration of wealth at the top, and the economic crisis we face. … We need different policies that will put the wellbeing and economic security of working families first, and if the working [...]
In a strong talk on Gender Lens Investing last week at SOCAP (Social Capital Markets), Jackie VanderBrug mentioned some figures I hadn’t heard, including one she cited to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) about the potential to increase global agricultural output through investments in women farmers. From the FAO press release to their 2011 [...]
How might a clean energy transition be financed? A couple of recent writings describe innovative approaches. The Capital Institute’s John Fullerton makes a “qualified” case for spending down charitable foundations. After all, he argues, if the risks of a changing climate are as immediate as many scientists fear, these impacts “will overwhelm the good efforts [...]
JOBS Act or not, crowdfunding platforms and opportunities are evolving rapidly. How might we better understand the crowdfunding ecosystem — what’s out there, what’s promised, and what might be missing? Here are four dimensions for consideration. Payback: What’s the nature of the exchange? A May 2012 crowdfunding.org global industry report distinguishes four kinds of platforms: donation-based, [...]
“The first step is to recognize we are lost,” write Peter Victor and Tim Jackson in the finance chapter of the Capital Institute June 2012 working paper, “Economics, Finance, Governance, and Ethics for the Anthropocene.” Our economy has become a financial system disconnected from the human virtues and oblivious to our scientific understanding. … To [...]
In David Ing’s presentation for the upcoming International Society for the Systems Sciences conference, I caught reference to a 2010 IBM report on systems of systems (“The world’s 4 trillion dollar challenge: Using a system-of-systems approach to build a smarter planet“). At a fundamental level, our world consists of 11 core systems (see Figure 1). [...]
“Much of what is taught in the graduate schools of economics is wrong,” says Nobel Memorial Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. I think I would still study economics. I still think that economics is essential to improving living standards and reducing poverty. But I would modify that in two ways. First, much of what is [...]
