A Free Beginner's Guide to the Sharing Economy For over two years, Shareable has explored the new sharing economy in its many forms: how individuals, families, communities, entrepreneurs, businesses, designers, coders, and countless more are building resilience through collaboration and sharing. In that time, we've amassed a considerable library of how-to share guides, and researched and documented how these shifts are transforming the economy, technology, and civil society. Still, those new to the sharing lifestyle may wonder where to start. It's one of the first things we learn as kids: How to share.But this practice usually fades as we become adults. The guide, available as a free PDF download, offers four Action Ideas to help communities tap into their shared assets and resources. Organize a Community SwapFocusing on clothing swaps Lend LocallyFocusing on tool libraries Share Time, Labor, and SkillsFocusing on time banks Set up a Co-opFocusing on solar co-ops Download the New Dream Community Action Kit Guide to Sharing (pdf)
Waiting for Copernicus: On the Slow-Death of Neoliberalism It’s happening in Buenos Aires. It’s happening in Paris and in Athens. It’s even happening at the World Bank headquarters. The global economy is finally shifting away from the model that prevailed for the last three decades. Europeans are rejecting austerity. Maybe that long-heralded “end of the Washington consensus” is finally upon us. After the near-collapse of the global financial system four years ago, obituary writers rushed to proclaim the death of the prevailing economic philosophy known as neo-liberalism. It was a tempting conclusion. Wall Street’s continued irrational exuberance, its lavishing of bonuses on its elite, and its pushback against even the most modest of regulations all suggest that the old Ptolemaic system – with Wall Street and the Washington Consensus still at the center of the universe – had not yet given way to a Copernican revolution that displaces these powerful institutions from their privileged position. Nowhere is that clearer than in Europe.
German voters must break the Merkel mindset that got them into this | Robin Wells Sometimes, just sometimes, economics and politics are like physics – one can recognize immutable forces. One of those times is now, as Greece is inexorably pushed out of the euro. It took no particular talent to have seen this coming, just the recognition that it has always been a fantasy to believe that the Greeks would democratically choose to destroy their economy for the better part of a decade in order to pay foreign creditors. The fact is that Greece never was a suitable member of the eurozone. That the Greek economy was extremely inefficient, that corruption was rife, that the government budgets were perpetually out of control, and that the official statistics were not to be believed were widely known. But, as in many marriages, Greece's entry into the euro was a triumph of sentimentality and wilful blindness over realism. What accounts for this? By doing this, the German elites set a trap for themselves with their own voters from which they cannot easily escape.
The Fastest-Dying Jobs of This Generation (and What Replaced Them) - Jordan Weissmann - Business In the late twentieth century, America underwent its big switch -- the transformation from a broadly middle class, manufacturing-based economy, to a financially polarized, services-based economy. Union rolls plummeted as Wall Streets profits surged, and the demand for factory workers were supplanted by the need for healthcare professionals, teachers, and computer engineers. This is a narrative that, by now, is probably familiar to you. But it's also abstract. The two graphs below, adapted from a new working paper by University of Pennsylvania economist Jeremy Greenwood and the Census Bureau's Emin Dinlersoz on the rise and fall of U.S. labor unions, tell the tale more concretely. In roughly 20 years, entire categories of factory work nearly disappeared. Of the fastest-growing occupations, the winner, by a long shot, was numerical control machine operators -- the men and women who program and run factory machinery. But why would skilled workers shun unions?
Dancing With Derivatives Jamie Dimon calls it “a doozy.” And it was. A $2 billion credit derivatives trading bungle that could mushroom to a $4 billion loss. The shining industry agitator against some of the tougher regulations on banks has suddenly become the shining example of why still tougher regulations may be needed. After the economy nearly atomized in a cloud of cupidity, Dimon became known as America’s least-hated banker. If Jamie the Great and his “good bank” can make such a gigantic blunder, sending déjà vu shivers down America’s back, what hope is there for lesser bankers? As Noam Scheiber writes in The New Republic, “we now have ironclad proof — as if we really needed it — that everyone is capable of disastrous stupidity.” Dimon doesn’t buy the argument that bosses of big, complex companies can never make mistakes. Britain has been rocked by a “shareholder spring,” a revolution of ordinarily placid investors vetoing bloated executive pay deals and bonuses. The Rev.
Peer-to-Peer Equity: Crowdcube With the introduction of p2p lending some lenders wrote that the concept enabled everyone to feel as banker. Now, newly launched Crowdcube.com enables any UK resident to feel as venture capitalist for a financial commitment as low as 10 GBP. Investors can browse pitches which usually include business plans and financial projections and sometimes even video pitches. In return for the investment, investors get shares of the company. For example entrepreneur Daniel Vinson wants to raise 50,000 GBP. He is offering 49% equity in return, meaning investors roughly get 1% shares in return for 1,000 GBP investment. There are 6 entrepreneurs pitching for funding at the moment. Crowdcube, founded by Darren Westlake and Luke Lang, launched 2 weeks ago. Investors are charged a processing fee by Crowdcube for each transaction equal to the sum of 0.20 GBP plus 4% of the value of the transaction. Investors can add credit to their Crowdcube account balance via credit card, paypal or bank transfer.
A Brief History of the Corporation: 1600 to 2100 On 8 June, a Scottish banker named Alexander Fordyce shorted the collapsing Company’s shares in the London markets. But a momentary bounce-back in the stock ruined his plans, and he skipped town leaving £550,000 in debt. Much of this was owed to the Ayr Bank, which imploded. In less than three weeks, another 30 banks collapsed across Europe, bringing trade to a standstill. If this sounds eerily familiar, it shouldn’t. In its 400+ year history, the corporation has achieved extraordinary things, cutting around-the-world travel time from years to less than a day, putting a computer on every desk, a toilet in every home (nearly) and a cellphone within reach of every human. So it is a sort of grim privilege for the generations living today to watch the slow demise of such a spectacularly effective intellectual construct. It is not yet time for the obituary (and that time may never come), but the sun is certainly setting on the Golden Age of corporations. Framing Modernity and Globalization
The Wolfson Economics Prize and the Euro-Zone Breakup A breakup in the euro zone just got more real with the announcement of the short list for the Wolfson Economics Prize, a prestigious economics award that has the biggest payout (£250,000, or about $400,000) after the Nobel Prize. This year’s Wolfson-challenge question was: “If member states leave the Economic and Monetary Union, what is the best way for the economic process to be managed to provide the soundest foundation for the future growth and prosperity of the current membership?” The fact that we now have several published answers to that question written by serious economists makes the breakup issue all the more pressing. The basic problem hasn’t changed since I first wrote about it in TIME’s cover story “The End of Europe” last summer. The euro zone has always been a selfish union, crafted in times of unprecedented growth that are unlikely to be repeated and predicated on short-term economic gain rather than longer-term political union within Europe.
3D Printing is Merged with Printed Electronics (NASDAQ:SSYS) Revolutionary "Smart Wing" Created for UAV Model Demonstrates Groundbreaking Technology From Stratasys and Optomec --(BUSINESS WIRE)-- (Nasdaq: SSYS) and Optomec Inc. today announced that the companies have successfully completed a joint development project to merge 3D printing and printed electronics to create the world's first fully printed hybrid structure. Additive manufacturing first: Electronic circuitry was printed onto a model of a UAV wing, which itself was 3D printed. (Photo: Optomec & ) The first project, the development of a "smart wing" for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) model with functional electronics is a revolutionary event that has the potential to change product development in industries including medical device, consumer electronics, automotive and aerospace. "Bringing together 3D printing and printed electronic circuitry will be a game changer for design and manufacturing," says , VP of direct digital manufacturing at . Forward Looking Statements Source:
bifo says relax by malcolm harris | thestate Of the anti-capitalist scholars and intellectuals who prescribe a political program, Franco Berardi might have the most counter-intuitive ideas. In his many articles, books, and lectures, Berardi pushes a curious line against a mind-warping market culture. During the current period of youth-led urban unrest, Berardi has consistently preached a resistance strategy that emulates the process of aging. In a new formulation he calls “post-futurism,” Berardi poses the Futurist fetishization of muscular youth against “the force of exhaustion, of facing the inevitable with grace, discovering the sensuous slowness of those who do not expect any more from life than wisdom.”1 We have enough things, he writes; what we really want is more time in which to flourish. This program of exhaustion is posed opposite the pulls of what neologism-happy Berardi labels “semiocapital.” He writes that “energy is fading in the postmodern world for many reasons that are easy to detect. . Yes, we want war.
Small-Town Solar Revolution Has Created Jobs Galore & Driven Down Price of Power in Germany Clean Power Published on March 19th, 2012 | by Zachary Shahan Solar energy policies in Germany have resulted in a jobs boom and have driven down the price of power on the EPEX Power Exchange. Solar Energy Is (or Can Be) Community Energy Solar energy can allow “the little guy” to power the country (well, a lot of little guys). “Yes. This is how clean energy can help individual citizens, of course, but it’s not necessarily how it’s done everywhere (i.e. in the U.S.). “The US is slowly switching to renewables, but it is nearly completely shutting out the little guy, with only two percent of installed wind power capacity not owned by giant corporations. Hmm, something to think about. Solar: Bringing Down Power Prices (or Keeping Them from Going Up Too Fast) While residential power prices in Germany have gone up in recent years, as solar and wind power have replaced nuclear and coal, there are some obvious reason for that. Solar panels on house in Germany courtesy shutterstock. About the Author
The Challenges and Rewards of Local Production Just fifteen minutes from my front door, mills used to transform locally-grown fiber into beautiful fabric. All that capability is gone now, off-shored in the 1990s. As someone who is interested in local sourcing, I had to ask the question, “Is it still possible to dress locally?” So I decided to see for myself what it would take to make a garment – a little black coat – from resources right in my own area. Where I live, the person to talk to about local fiber is Rebecca Burgess, the founder of Fibershed. Making the Local Coat The team included a rancher, a textile maker, a fiber artist, an alpaca, and a client – me. Alan Good Vicki Arns has been raising alpaca for 27 years, almost as long as alpaca have been imported into the United States. Alan Good/Mali Mrozinski Her Alpaca Shire ranch in Sonoma, California – about 26 miles from my home – provided 2.2 pounds of beautiful black fleece for this project. Karen Brown William Boice Mali Mrozinski The Economics of Local Sourcing
The Amazing Technicolor Localcoat: The Economics of Etsy The Etsy blog just posted this story about a woman’s quest to completely locally source a coat. It’s presented as a great success, a doable thing (even though the coat cost $900) and a harbinger of, or at least an indicator for a possible mechanism for a new economy. And here’s where your humble narrator goes: hrmmmmm. Because if you read that article, you may or may not notice the several things that I did. Now, I’m not saying this lady is wrong and should feel bad–she’s fine, she went on a journey and this is what she found. But the triumphalism is a little odd. Just fifteen minutes from my front door, mills used to transform locally-grown fiber into beautiful fabric. Yep, me too. That is not what a textile mill does. You know what part of the country would love to have the textile industry back, though? Because she doesn’t make her coat locally. Alright, so this is only a locally made coat in the loosest sense, isn’t it? So: I am a knitter. So, first, the yarn. And that’s fine.