Keep your money in Northeast Michigan

       *You benefit – not some large corporation

          *Local communities benefit – not another state or country

        *Money won’t disappear from a major scandal

Welcome to “Communities Investing in Communities” forum. 

NEMCOG along with key stakeholders in Northeast Michigan, and we hope you too,   are starting this forum in an effort to keep local money local instead of sending out of the community.  This group and discussion began after reviewing the Solari concept introduced by Catherine Austin Fitts.  You can read about Catherine’s impressive experience on www.solari.com. 

In agreement with the solari concept, we believe Northeast Michigan can transform our finances, and our world, hand in hand.  We believe we can start doing this in our lives and with family, friends and colleagues wherever we live and through our networks in many places.

 Why Should We Do This?

If we want clean water, fresh food, sustainable infrastructure, sound banks, lawful companies and healthy communities, we must finance and govern these resources ourselves. We cannot continue to invest in the stocks and bonds of large corporations and governments that exploit our food, water and environment and then expect these resources to be always available.

Our environment is suffering.  Debt and unemployment are rising, along with the cost of living, while our income, assets, and retirement nest eggs are dwindling.  We are working harder than ever.  The dollar is falling, oil is peaking, and market manipulation is rampant.  Our traditional market mechanisms are not sustainable and have resulted in a centralized economy which has a negative return on personal investment.

 How Do We Do This?

We accomplish this by focusing our time and our money in a financially intimate way through supporting local leaders and community circles made up of people we know and trust.  These community circles create jobs and financial security in our families and communities, strengthen our small farms and businesses, and generate positive investment returns for local investors.

This opportunity will develop from organizing locally as we network globally.  To improve financial transparency and sustainability in our cities, towns, and villages we must explore how the money works, flows, and disappears – and reengineer our economy from the grassroots level to promote a local economy. Financing communities and small farms and businesses will reduce debt and create jobs.

No longer do we have to purchase from, deposit with or invest in large global financial institutions and corporations and assume we can use these profits to reinvest in ourselves and our communities. Instead, we will learn to apply our purchases and savings to invest directly in those local communities that we and our families need and wish to preserve for future generations.

We do this by joining with trusted friends and neighbors in forming Community Circles to learn how and to take action together, and to begin pooling our savings into financially intimate investments. Part of this process is making deposits, purchases and investments with locally owned banks or credit unions and by working together to analyze where our money enters and exits the community.  And then, when there is sufficient support from local business leaders and citizens, we arrange for the formation of a local Community Venture Fund for our neighborhood. Through such efforts we can build a new investment model in which we share incentives to reduce consumption, heal and respect the environment, collaborate effectively and live in peace and build self-sustaining communities.

 So now what?
We need to develop a circle of interested of trusted friends with a particular focus on investing their time and money in building wealth versus getting rich in transformative ways. Wealth is viewed as a blend of financial and living equity, including the health and well being of our families, our communities and our planet. Financial investment that emphasizes financial intimacy and "back to basics" investments -- green, self-sufficiency, venture, precious metals, offshore and local investment -- rather than promoting traditional corporate investment.

By collectively shifting our focus of spending, banking and investing toward sustainable, decentralized businesses and farming, we can transform our community. Our immediate goal is to create living and equity wealth that is sustainable for our families and fellow members in a way that contributes to healthy, sustainable communities worldwide.

For example, why let credit card companies finance our neighbors' debt at 18% when we are only earning 2% on our bank CDs? Why not get together and pool our capital and keep those interest profits in our community, while helping our neighbors work down their debt?

Other local investment opportunities include neighborhood business and venture investments, consumer and business aggregation, government resource reengineering and other similar activities. Network opportunities include what people we know and trust are doing or are investing in, including within their communities.

Please add your thoughts and feeling to this forum. 

Top Twenty Banks to Avoid 

Following is Solari's list of the 20 Best Banks to flush from our lives in the US. In 2004 alone these 20 banks reaped $89 billion in net income, while in the same year US households ran a deficit of $342 billion [1]. Think what could happen if we turned the tables?

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