Does anyone have any hard evidence about the actual number of community-profit projects, as opposed to the usual rape-and-pillage finance?
I can think of one - and the bank involved is very unusual, with a rare record of community interest.
If you want to prove there are more than isolated counter-examples, show me evidence of systemic banking generosity and community engagement.
It's a bit of a bonkers argument to be making at a time when communities and individuals are struggling but the banks aren't lending - and the banks and the FT are saying so.
Adam Smith said it better: "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Big industry requires big finance and big finance changes the economic game away from Smith's marketplace of petty merchants, tradesmen and farmers. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
Smiths principle is still valid though, but I fear this simple thought experiment by now has been wrung dry of its use. :) Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
Smiths principle is still valid though
[the general equilibrium theory of Neoclassical Economics] means that, for those subsystems of the economy where conditions are apt, the market can be relied upon, particularly if the market is not relied upon for the overall stability of the economy the determination of the pace and even the direction of investment income distribution and 4) the determination of prices and outputs in those sectors that use large amounts of capital assets per unit of input or per worker
And the other point was that mobilizing resources increases wealth. That's why people are willing to mobilize resources today for a benefit tomorrow.
That finance can be predatory is not under dispute either. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
Everyone I know who's a farmer or manage forest and need capital to do that. Not to mention the iron mine north of the city they'll rehabilitate for about 100 million euros... Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
