A New Economy

Everyday people are taking action to change how and where they spend their money. They are doing so for a variety of reasons:

• To use their money to meet real human needs rather than an unending list of "wants"
• To save their money in local banks and credit unions with a good track record of community-based investing, that don't redline or make unethical loans that later damage the community through foreclosures and business closures
• To invest in local businesses that create real local jobs
• To shift money away from purchases or investments in corporations and factory farms that oppose local democratic decision making and reasonable regulations to protect people and the environment
• To wrest their money - including retirement funds - away from Wall Street speculators and the devastating ups and downs of unfettered markets

The economy is not really numbers on a coin or piece of paper. It's really about relationships. Sharing is another part of the economy. The Twin Cities has had a time bank (Hour Dollar) for decades. The cities are home to several cohousing communities. NE Minneapolis - and now midtown St. Paul - have tool sharing libraries. You can also find shared maker spaces and cooperative work spaces.

Minnesota is home to more cooperatives than anywhere else in the U.S. And CoopPrincipal is an investment group for folks who want to promote cooperatives. Northeast is the beneficiary of local investing through the Northeast Investment Cooperative (NEIC). (A similar group operated in SE Minneapolis for a number of years, purchasing local housing to ensure it was not bought by absentee landlords and allowed to turn into slum-like housing.) We can access great food through a hundred local CSAs and visit dozens of restaurants with farm-to-table connections.

In some arenas. Minnesota is only now coming into its own. Minnesota’s local business investment portal – MNVest – has only recently gone live, allowing average people to invest in local businesses. Slow Money Minnesota is starting to offer opportunities to invest in growing farms and farmers. Community solar gardens are finally being approved and implemented, after several years of delay. And conversations are just beginning around the idea of a creating a municipal bank.

As exciting as these opportunities are in the Twin Cities, much more is happening in other places around the world, including alternative currencies like the Berkshire Buck and Bay Bucks in San Francisco. We invite you to review information found at the Transition REconomy Project to see what’s possible with ingenuity, creativity, vision and commitment.

If you have an idea and you are seeking community input and support, contact Transition Twin Cities and we'll see if we can bring people together to hear more.

Funding Opportunities

• MNvest Investing in local businesses for average people
• Cooprincipal Investment Club for the 99%
• Slow Money Minnesota Investing in our local, family owned farms
• Northeast Investment Coop Investing in Northeast Minneapolis

Sharing

• Legal Basics for Time Banks and Barter Exchanges
• Hour Dollars A Time Bank - using time as currency for exchange
• Couchsurfing The free shared housing alternative to AirBnB that doesn't pull homes off the market for local residents and drive up housing prices
• Dual Currency Systems A currency system developed by Minnesota local, Joel Hodroff

National Resources

• Legal Basics for Time Banks and Barter Exchanges
• The Transition ReConomy Project
• Sustainable Economies Law Center
• Slow Money Institute
• Berkshares - Alternative currency in the Berkshires of Massachusetts
• Bay Bucks - Community currency in the San Francisco Bay Area

Books

• “Local Dollars Local Sense: How to Shift Your Money from Wall Street To Main Street and Achieve Real Prosperity” by Michael Shuman
• “Weaving the Community Resilience and New Economy Movement” by Marissa Mommaerts
• “Financing Our Foodshed” by Carol Hewitt
• “Practicing Law in the Sharing Economy: Helping People Build Cooperatives, Social Enterprises and Local Sustainable Economies” by Janelle Orsi
• The Sharing Solution” by Emily Doskow, Attorney & Mediator and Janelle Orsi, Attorney
• “All That We Share: How to Save the Economy, the Environment, the Internet, Democracy, Our Communities and Everything Else that Belongs to All of Us” by Jay Walljasper