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30 Sep 09

Video - The Coming Currency Revolution - WSJ.com

Fascinating video about some of the alternative currencies already out there, building peer-to-peer finance and personal (and virtual) currencies. Scarcity, attention, money... Good stuff. Note: Saltspring Island has had its own currency for years - take it to the next level with virtual component?

online.wsj.com/...79-4609-A55D-1BAE9A1BA158.html - Preview

wsj.com currency economics virtual_currency ven peer-to-peer-finance p2p video

04 Mar 09

Economic Impact: The City as a Social Portfolio « The Captured Perspective

Great 'Captured Perspective' blog post by Peter Boumgarden, who comments on Richard Florida's Atlantic Monthly piece:
QUOTE
"...cities are not just portfolios that emerge segmented for risk, but also social entities that respond positively to this differentiation with increased generativity. Cities are not only portfolios, but also social entities where diverse individuals interacting results in additional benefits for the growth of that city, over and above the lower risk of economic failure. In this way, a city might best be conceived a social portfolio.
UNQUOTE

capturedperspective.com/...the-city-as-a-social-portfolio - Preview

captured_perspective peter_boumgarden richard_florida social_capital cities diversity economics

  • What this means is that cities are not just portfolios that emerge segmented for risk, but also social entities that respond positively to this differentiation with increased generativity.  Cities are not only portfolios, but also social entities where diverse individuals interacting results in additional benefits for the growth of that city, over and above the lower risk of economic failure.  In this way, a city might best be conceived a social portfolio.
  • What this means is that cities are not just portfolios that emerge segmented for risk, but also social entities that respond positively to this differentiation with increased generativity.  Cities are not only portfolios, but also social entities where diverse individuals interacting results in additional benefits for the growth of that city, over and above the lower risk of economic failure.  In this way, a city might best be conceived a social portfolio.


    What you have in a city like Detroit (or unfortunately, many mid-major Midwestern cities, St. Louis included) is a poor social portfolio- resulting from a significant lack of industry diversity, and a lack of concentrated interaction among any diversity. Taken together, these cities are both at higher risk of collapse given the right conditions, and a lower ‘risk’ of growth and innovation.

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24 Feb 09

The Atlantic Online | March 2009 | How the Crash Will Reshape America | Richard Florida

Richard Florida on how the financial crash will affect specific geographical locales and cities in the US / in North America. On NYC, he notes that its diversified economy - even though it's home to Wall Street, which may well be moribund if not dead already - will see the city through the worst of it.

www.theatlantic.com/...meltdown-geography - Preview

richard_florida economy economics cities

  • The great urbanist Jane Jacobs was among the first to identify cities’ diverse economic and social structures as the true engines of growth. Although the specialization identified by Adam Smith creates powerful efficiency gains, Jacobs argued that the jostling of many different professions and different types of people, all in a dense environment, is an essential spur to innovation—to the creation of things that are truly new. And innovation, in the long run, is what keeps cities vital and relevant.
  • In 2005, I asked a top-ranking official at a major investment bank whether the city’s rising real-estate prices were affecting his company’s ability to attract global talent. He responded simply: “We are the cause, not the effect, of the real-estate bubble.” (As it turns out, he was only half right.) Stratospheric real-estate prices have made New York less diverse over time, and arguably less stimulating.
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18 Jan 09

A User's Guide to 21st Century Economics - Umair Haque - HarvardBusiness.org

Umair Haque's Jan.7/09 piece, self-explanatory title. Lots of great ideas - and something about the reference to "symmetrical competition" made me think of Greg Lynn's rejection of symmetry in architecture (to maximize resources) and also of how waste is a major 21st c. trope.
QUOTE
Where do new rules come from? Here are five questions every decision maker should kick off 2009 by asking - and five results summarizing some of the new rules we've learned over the last year at the Lab.
UNQUOTE

discussionleader.hbsp.com/...ers_guide_to_21st_century.html - Preview

umair_haque harvard_business analysis economics symmetry

  • 20th century business isn't fit for 21st century economics. Yesterday's businesses were built for a world of overconsumption, artificially cheap production, symmetrical competition, and macroeconomic stability. That was yesterday. Today, the herd of industrial-era dinosaurs is going to be mercilessly culled - unless they can evolve to fit a radically altered economic environment.
  • Where do new rules come from? Here are five questions every decision maker should kick off 2009 by asking - and five results summarizing some of the new rules we've learned over the last year at the Lab.
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09 Dec 08

Extracting Value From Free | PSFK

Can't sell copies of anything anymore if it's easy to make copies. So what's left? "[Kevn Kelly] sees the solution to this conundrum hinging on being able to identify qualities that themselves can’t be copied and believes we must do this from the perspective of a user. Kelly refers to these as “generatives” - things that are better than free."

www.psfk.com/...cting-the-value-from-free.html - Preview

psfk kevin_kelly capitalism economics web_2.0

    • Immediacy
  • Personalization
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How To Be a 21st Century Capitalist - Umair Haque

Haque makes a case similar to "Natural Capitalism"'s - if you capitalize what's currently expended (as a negative externality, say), you attach "real" value to it.

Some interesting points/ questions, too:
QUOTE:
Capital deepening is the foundation of next-generation value creation. Why is capital deepening so important? The reason that capitalism can destroy the world is that most of the world doesn't exist in an economic sense. And so when we capitalize rainforests, endangered species, community, the foregone opportunities of the poor, our own well-being - then they will finally have value: they can finally be priced, and so the fatcats of the world won't be free to destroy them with impunity.
(...)
Today's so-called capitalists are anything but: mostly, they're charlatans, impostors, and poseurs. But today's most radical innovators are revolutionary, ironically enough, because they are learning to be genuine capitalists once again - capitalists in the 21st century sense of the word. They are discovering how to create value by growing new resources composed of social, natural, human, and cultural capital. By doing so, they are pumping new blood into capitalism's failing heart.
UNQUOTE

The bit on capital being a consensus is also thought-provoking.

discussionleader.hbsp.com/...o_be_a_21st_century_capit.html - Preview

umair_haque capitalism economics

  • So here's what 21st century capitalism looks like.
  • 20th century capitalism, in other words, marginally valued pure financial capital too highly, while marginally valuing human, natural, social, and cultural capital at zero - or, at the limit, negatively.
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01 Dec 08

Better Place || Electric Changes Everything

Hmmm, from the header: "electric changes everything :: When we break the cycle of oil dependence, new things become possible. See how the switch to electric transforms the relationship between cars, people and the planet."

Proposed solution? Electric everything?

Portal page.

Interesting - lots to explore...

www.betterplace.com/electric-changes-everything - Preview

ecology economics environment electricity futurismo better_place shai_agassi

Business Guide - David Suzuki Foundation

"New guide to cutting greenhouse gas emissions shows how businesses can save millions and the environment." Portal page for downloading the document(s), etc.

www.davidsuzuki.org/...dsfnews11260801.asp - Preview

environment ecology economics business david_suzuki green_strategies

16 Nov 08

The Bellows » Economics for Dummies

A great post by Ryan Avent critiquing the notion of "sunk costs," particularly as (speciously) applied to suburbia. In particular, Avent shows why, when talking about suburban housing, the concept of "sunk cost" is not (or should not be) a disincentive to selling.

www.ryanavent.com/blog - Preview

the_bellows ryan_avent oil peak_oil suburbia transportation sunk_costs economics

09 Jan 08

seven for 2007 | varnelis.net

I've had this open in a browser tab for days, wanting to bookmark it, but hesitating because I found it impossible to describe, tag, or in any way categorize. So, let's just say it's "wow" and one of the best recaps-cum-predictions amongst the blogs. Read it.

varnelis.net/...seven_for_2007 - Preview

architecture cities cloud_computing creatives economics ideas predictions privacy reference wow

21 Oct 07

Finding your Starbucks Quotient :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Neighborhoods

  • short for Starbucks Quotient -- a bellwether number I've come up with that can be used to determine if your hood is happening. Whether you like it or not.


    Corinne, a junior at the Latin School, lives in part of the Gold Coast that's tied for having the top SBQ in Chicago.


    In 60611, there are 12 spots where you can get a grande, nonfat, no-whip, sugar-free vanilla latte with a slice of lemon loaf, and a tip for the barista for about seven bucks.


    "I never counted all of them. I just thought there was a Starbucks on every corner," Corinne says.


    That's the running joke for a lot of people living in a neighborhood with a high SBQ. But it's not exactly true.


    So, I enlisted the help of Sun-Times computer-assisted reporting guru, Art Golab, to map out the SBQ for every Chicago postal district.


    What Ol' Art found was that besides in the Loop and at O'Hare Airport -- where nobody lives but there're 20 Starbucks kiosks -- three ZIP codes in Old Town, Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast have 12 Starbucks each.


    There're five Starbucks per 10,000 residents in Streeterville. And about two Starbucks for every 10,000 residents in the Lincoln Park and the Gold Coast ZIP codes.


    What does a hood's SBQ say about the people who live there?


    Well, parts of town with the most Starbucks are home to rich, white families who take home more than $60,000 a year, according to people who keep track of those things.


    Less sophisticated Starbucks researchers use the company's store locator to find out how many Starbucks you can find in a five-mile radius -- which some blogger in 2005 dubbed "Starbucks Density."


    Back then, the greatest Starbucks Density in the world -- if you believe everything you read on a blog -- was found in London, which boasted 170 Starbucks locations in a five-mile radius.

  • There can be no doubt that people need Starbucks, and having plenty to choose from factors into the decisions city folks make on where to buy a condo, rent an apartment or even attend college.


    Lincoln Park Realtor Ben Osbun says that when he shows a condo in an up-an-coming part of town that still has more crack dealers than coffee houses he brings along a map of where prospective buyers can find the nearest Starbucks.


    "Not the nearest coffee house," he says. "It's a map of the nearest Starbucks."


    And Eliana, Corinne and their friends agreed that a university's SBQ -- like its academic reputation and opportunities for meeting cute boys -- is something to consider before they pick a place to spend their parents' money on college.


    "I wouldn't not go to a college because it doesn't have a Starbucks," Eliana says. "But it's something to keep in mind. Definitely."

  • 1 more annotations...

Reason Magazine - The Secrets of Intangible Wealth by Ronal Bailey

  • But what is intangible wealth, and how on earth is it measured? And what does it mean for the world's people—poor and rich? That's where the story gets even more interesting.

    Two years ago the World Bank's environmental economics department set out to assess the relative contributions of various kinds of capital to economic development. Its study, "Where is the Wealth of Nations?: Measuring Capital for the 21st Century," began by defining natural capital as the sum of nonrenewable resources (including oil, natural gas, coal and mineral resources), cropland, pasture land, forested areas and protected areas. Produced, or built, capital is what many of us think of when we think of capital: the sum of machinery, equipment, and structures (including infrastructure) and urban land.

    But once the value of all these are added up, the economists found something big was still missing: the vast majority of world's wealth! If one simply adds up the current value of a country's natural resources and produced, or built, capital, there's no way that can account for that country's level of income.

    The rest is the result of "intangible" factors—such as the trust among people in a society, an efficient judicial system, clear property rights and effective government. All this intangible capital also boosts the productivity of labor and results in higher total wealth. In fact, the World Bank finds, "Human capital and the value of institutions (as measured by rule of law) constitute the largest share of wealth in virtually all countries."

    Once one takes into account all of the world's natural resources and produced capital, 80% of the wealth of rich countries and 60% of the wealth of poor countries is of this intangible type. The bottom line: "Rich countries are largely rich because of the skills of their populations and the quality of the institutions supporting economic activity."
  • the rule of law explains 57 percent of countries' intangible capital. Education accounts for 36 percent.
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29 Aug 06

Cruise-ship business booming

  • letter-to-the-editor response re. Alaskan tax on cruise ship passengers - lampertina on 2006-08-29
  • I'm curious why the article referred to the cruise ship industry as "beleaguered."
    • this is an excellent point -- the local media always like to play up the "little red riding hood" complex (this is my thesis that it was only the wolf that made LRRH significant; without the wolf, who would care 2-cents about L'il Hood? So, you need the wolf to make people care... - on 2006-08-29
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12 Jun 06

Robert Theobald andThe Healing Century. Radio National Transcripts: The Inevitable/Impossible Transformation: Grasping our Moment in Time.

  • Into this supercharged atmosphere came a report from a new group called The Club of Rome. Entitled, The Limits to Growth, it set out the reasons why growth could not continue for an unlimited time.

    I was at the press conference and meeting which launched this document. Indeed, I knew the person who worked on its release in Washington, DC. We had a major disagreement. I argued that the message which people would take from the book was a deeply pessimistic one. He hoped that the ending would cause people to recognize that the predictions of the volume could be altered. My experience over the decade convinced me that I was right.

    Human beings cannot live with pessimism. They inevitably look for potentials. The inevitable reaction to the challenge to the growth model was to reinforce it and to come up with rationales for continuing the current system. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President Ronald Reagan were prime movers in reestablishing the faith in current systems. By the nineties, those who challenged the current belief patterns were told firmly that there were "no choices" and that we needed to stay the course in order to be successful, and indeed even to survive in an increasingly competitive world.

  • it is still necessary to face a massive dilemma that has developed at both the community and the theoretical level. If each group in a community is entitled to its own views, how then can decisions be taken? What are the patterns of judgement which enable cloture to be achieved? Failure to answer this question in any satisfactory way is one of the primary reasons for the current decline in citizenship activities. There is a sense that processes go on for ever and that nothing final is ever achieved.
  • 8 more annotations...
19 May 06

Robert Fulford's column about The Nature of Economies by Jane Jacobs

  • She wants to
    demonstrate that economic life, far from being superimposed on the natural world, is a part of
    nature.

  • It seems to me that much of what I have read about her, and much of what I have heard said
    about her, ignores these crucial aspects of her thinking, perhaps out of a fear that they might add
    up to something truly dreadful -- conservativism.
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