Don't invest in Wall St, invest in Main St

Former BusinessWeek editor Amy Cortese spent a year uncovering the most innovative experiments in citizen finance around the world, and proposes a culture of "locavesting" --investing in businesses within 50 miles of where you live-- as a way of rebuilding sustainable communities in the U.S.

Excerpt:

"Americans have about $26 trillion dollars in investments, and now it's probably closer to $30 trillion. Imagine if half of that, $15 trillion, was invested in local communities rather than multinational conglomerates that are outsourcing jobs and not investing domestically. I think we’d be living in a far different world. That said, it is a little idealistic to think we’ll ever get to 50% any time soon. But even think about 10% or 5% or 1%. One percent of $26 trillion is $260 billion going to the Main Street economy and that’s a lot."

Read the rest of this fascinating interview here.