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Community Wealth Blog

Started in May, Evidence of Humanity.org is a new website, based out of Seattle, that seeks to profile individuals, groups and organizations that aim to improve the human condition throughout the world. The website’s “stories” section is particularly helpful, including links to other group’s websites, book reviews, and human interest stories.

Restoring Prosperity is an initiative of the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, Smart Growth America, the National Housing Institute, PolicyLink, the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities, and the Northeast-Midwest Institute. To date, the coalition has focused its efforts in six states: Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

“If you melded Adam Smith with Karl Marx, what would you get? Aside from a person constantly arguing with himself, you might also get something similar to an economic model that is slowly taking root in the U.S. economy: employee ownership.” So begins a June 2007 article fedgazette, a monthly publication of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

The National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 (HR 2985), authored by House Financial Services Chair Barney Frank and formerly introduced toward the end of June, aims to construct, rehabilitate, and preserve 1,500,000 units of housing over the next 10 years.

Supported by the Skoll Foundation, NOW on PBS is devoting an entire beat to covering social entrepreneurs. NOW plans to broadcast features on more than a dozen social entrepreneurs. The program website also will profile dozens more innovative projects and provides resources for starting one’s own social venture. The website also includes a “Better World” blog that aims to cover the latest happenings in the field of social entrepreneurship.

As Zach Patton notes in a June 2007 feature article in Governing magazine, “Developers are investing more than a billion dollars in projects centered around Charlotte’s transit stations — and the trains haven’t even carried a single passenger yet.” The article adds that, “Charlotte isn’t the only low-density city pegging its future on the rails. Sun Belt cities from Orlando to Phoenix are building out light-rail systems, in an historic break from the car-bound past.”

While micro-enterprise is celebrated internationally (as the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank last year demonstrates), here in the United States micro-enterprise advocates fight for pennies.  In FY 2007, federal support for micro-enterprise loan capital and technical assistance totaled $35 million—less than 12 cents per person. The Bush administration in FY 2008 has proposed zero.

Want “to save the world and give voters money at the same time?” Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter asks.  In a recent column in Newsweek Alter suggests that adopting Peter Barnes’ proposal for a publicly-owned “Sky Trust,” as Barnes advises in Capitalism 3.0, would provide the best way to achieve these goals.

A recent study conducted by Good Jobs First finds that the state of New Jersey has provided $94.3 million in two 10-year state Business Employment Incentive Program (BEIP) grants to encourage Citigroup to hire or relocate 3,350 people to offices in Warren Township and Jersey City. 

At the annual meeting of the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, Gigi Hyland, a Board member of the federal credit union regulatory agency (National Credit Union Administration) acknowledged that the agency needs to do more to change its examination process so that credit unions are not penalized for serving the poor.

As an Associated Press wire report indictates, HR 1427, the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act of 2007, passed a floor vote by a margin of 313-104 in the House of Representatives last week. The bill would provide for stricter federal supervision of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored companies, which together finance or guarantee more than three-quarters of U.S. home mortgages.

The Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University is a nonprofit organization that provides research and technical assistance to those interested in employee ownership, as well as ownership training to established employee-owned businesses. The Program Coordinator position will support the expansion of the OEOC’s business ownership succession planning program through public outreach, organizing seminars for business owners on ownership succession, and working closely with retiring owners who choose to sell to their employees.