Designing Rules as if Community Matters

About the New Rules Project The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) proposes a set of new rules that builds community by supporting humanly scaled politics and economics. The rules call for: Decisions made by those impacted Communities accepting responsibility for the welfare of their members and the next generation Households and communities possessing or owning sufficient productive capacity to generate real wealth NewRules.org discusses the importance of rules and catalogs the best. We make the rules and the rules make us. More	Misrepresenting Small Business August 26, 2010 \| Retail Article The two groups that have traditionally spoken for small business in Washington often push an agenda that only big business could love, writes the New Rules Project's Stacy Mitchell in this commentary for Business Week. For six years, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has tried to give a tax cut to businesses in his state. And year after year the Democratic governor's proposal has been stymied by a surprising foe: the state's business lobby. More
Grassroots Financing is Underwriting a New Crop of Neighborhood Businesses August 24, 2010 \| Retail Article Securing a loan to open a new independent bookstore in Brooklyn looked like a long shot even before the financial crisis. After the meltdown, it seemed downright impossible. Then business partners Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting hit on an idea: they turned to neighbors and future customers to help finance the business, raising $70,000 in small loans over a few months. Just as CSAs have played a key role in the rebirth of small-scale farms, so too may these new community-supported enterprise models help launch a new generation of independent grocers, bookstores, and other neighborhood businesses. More	Why Does Target have a Subsidiary in Bermuda? July 28, 2010 \| Retail News Or, for that matter, why does Best Buy have one in the Republic of Mauritius? Tax avoidance might be the answer. A growing number of big corporations are using offshore tax havens to escape paying U.S. taxes. A recent estimate suggests big companies are dodging at least $37 billion a year — and, in so doing, gaining a significant competitive advantage over small businesses. Until now, efforts in Congress to block companies from hiding profits overseas have been slow-going. But that's changing thanks to a new coalition of small businesses that have come together to call on Congress to level the playing field. More
ILSR Explains Broadband on "MN This Week" Radio Interview July 21, 2010 \| Retail News Christopher Mitchell, Director of the Telecommunications as Commons Initiative, joins Curtis Beckmann on "MN This Week" to discuss broadband networks. The 30 minute program discusses problems with existing broadband networks, the lack of competition, how and why communities have built their own networks, and a variety of other topical subjects. Listen here. More	Taking Financial Reform into Our Own Hands July 14, 2010 \| Banking News With the now-expected passage of the financial reform bill, giant bankssee a golden opportunity to finally put the financial crisis, alongwith their culpability for wrecking our economy, in the rearviewmirror. But the legislation leaves us at best only modestly less vulnerable to another meltdown.And it fails utterly to confront a deeper problem: even in the best oftimes, our banking system does not serve us very well. More