MSJ Highlights: Quarter One
This quarter’s biggest news includes publishing the inaugural issue of MSJ Extra! Paid subscribers, between free issues of the original Main Street Journal, now receive a deep-dive interview with an opinion leader in local investment, along with the latest nationwide listings of local investment opportunities.
Our interviews highlight prominent policymakers, book authors, and other rabble-rousers.
We kicked off 2024 with a film recommendation.
One night this week, treat yourself and whoever else you can crowd into your living room to watch Bank of Dave, a new film (available on Netflix) about David Fishwick’s inspiring efforts to establish a local bank in 2011 in Burnley, a small town in northern England. Dave does the seemingly impossible—he defeats the big, monopolistic banking establishment in London to get the first new banking charter in 150 years. The film takes liberties with the real story—there’s a fictional concert by Def Leppard to raise capital for the bank, for example—but the broad outlines are true enough. Ultimately, the film makes the most powerful and moving case for local reinvestment since It’s a Wonderful Life.
In February, we announced a new webinar series on best practices in community investing with a team of seasoned organizers.
Kevin Jones of Neighborhood Economics and I will host an interview series with community investment fund leaders from around the country. They will help decode the DNA of different designs, enabling you and your community to replicate them.
Our first interview features Derek Peebles, one of the leaders of an effort to create a Diversified Community Investment Fund in Cincinnati. Learn more about the series here.
Running the show is Joel Skene, whose Mindful Marketplace is already introducing local investment concepts to thousands of listeners. Co-sponsors include us, Neighborhood Economics, and ImpactAlpha. Data from each show will ultimately feed a public wiki to help you build support for your own community’s fund.
March included a call to support the Expanding Access to Capital Act.
If there’s one thing as constant as gravity, it’s the short-sightedness of our top securities regulators. The North American Securities Administrators Association recently wrote a letter urging Congress to vote down the pending “Expanding Access to Capital Act,” which would reform and update federal investment crowdfunding law. Kudos to Sherwood Neiss of Crowdfund Capital Advisors for writing a forceful rebuttal to their letter.
If these updates just whet your appetite for more, please subscribe to our paid edition, the MSJ Extra!, through this handy link.