Comments on: Trade and Diversity http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/ Ideas on Liberty Wed, 15 Feb 2012 02:51:35 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: JIM MILLER http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/comment-page-1/#comment-32025 JIM MILLER Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:39:47 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/#comment-32025 Trade and diversity http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/# Mr. Davies, Thanks for your carefully researched and well-written article. The “trading post” idea [Egypt discovers 3,500-year-old oasis trading post, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_antiquities ] may have some current application, only the “trade” will be, as you suggest, economic, political, cultural, and self-assessment and improvement. The central structural element will be a back-bone of financial institutions. The closest we have are the community development financial institutions (CDFI), which are creatures created by Congress and funded through the U.S. Dept. of Treasury. The system is designed to flow money into communities, especially low-income and poverty stricken ones. While many of the projects are “band-aid” (solves one problem in a community, i.e. a new fire station), most of the solutions are top-down driven rather than bottom-up driven. The “trading post” concept solves this problem by creating a series of community based, “investment clubs” which aggregate small amounts of money from each member, then the members jointly decided in which entity to “invest”. KIVA (www.kiva.org) is an example of this type of “bottom-up capitalism”). The investment may be made on the basis of only the financial return and safety of capital. Or, the investment may be made in a non-profit as a grant, (no return of capital or profit), but with a very strong pay-back in terms of social benefits to the community. There needs to be a “stock exchange” which is designed to facilitate the “trading post” or investment club idea. The current “casino stock exchanges” do not offer such service. That goal is slowly being formed as the “Small Business Investment Exchange” (SBIE), http://sbic.wetpaint.com. This is an open source approach to forming a new, nationwide method which provides some safety for the social benefit investor, for raising capital for social benefit entrepreneurial enterprises, and for the creation of “trading posts” or investment clubs in all parts of the nation. Take a look and see how your article serves this objective and let me have your comments on SBIE. Regards, Jim Miller jimmiller5417@yahoo.com Trade and diversity
http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/#

Mr. Davies,

Thanks for your carefully researched and well-written article. The “trading post” idea [Egypt discovers 3,500-year-old oasis trading post, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt_antiquities ]
may have some current application, only the “trade” will be, as you suggest, economic, political, cultural, and self-assessment and improvement. The central structural element will be a back-bone of financial institutions. The closest we have are the community development financial institutions (CDFI), which are creatures created by Congress and funded through the U.S. Dept. of Treasury.

The system is designed to flow money into communities, especially low-income and poverty stricken ones. While many of the projects are “band-aid” (solves one problem in a community, i.e. a new fire station), most of the solutions are top-down driven rather than bottom-up driven. The “trading post” concept solves this problem by creating a series of community based, “investment clubs” which aggregate small amounts of money from each member, then the members jointly decided in which entity to “invest”. KIVA (www.kiva.org) is an example of this type of “bottom-up capitalism”). The investment may be made on the basis of only the financial return and safety of capital. Or, the investment may be made in a non-profit as a grant, (no return of capital or profit), but with a very strong pay-back in terms of social benefits to the community.

There needs to be a “stock exchange” which is designed to facilitate the “trading post” or investment club idea. The current “casino stock exchanges” do not offer such service. That goal is slowly being formed as the “Small Business Investment Exchange” (SBIE), http://sbic.wetpaint.com. This is an open source approach to forming a new, nationwide method which provides some safety for the social benefit investor, for raising capital for social benefit entrepreneurial enterprises, and for the creation of “trading posts” or investment clubs in all parts of the nation. Take a look and see how your article serves this objective and let me have your comments on SBIE.

Regards,
Jim Miller
jimmiller5417@yahoo.com

]]> By: David Orel http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/comment-page-1/#comment-32019 David Orel Wed, 25 Aug 2010 14:30:42 +0000 http://www.thefreemanonline.org/uncategorized/our-economic-past-trade-and-diversity/#comment-32019 I see Imperialism as something very positive and directly related to trade. Trade based on international division of labor thrives only when an empire provides safe trade passages and it withers when empire is weak and banditry takes over. It takes only few instances of banditry to stop the flow, as we have seen recently with the banditry off the coast of Somalia, or the aftermath of 9/11. I see Imperialism as something very positive and directly related to trade. Trade based on international division of labor thrives only when an empire provides safe trade passages and it withers when empire is weak and banditry takes over. It takes only few instances of banditry to stop the flow, as we have seen recently with the banditry off the coast of Somalia, or the aftermath of 9/11.

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