A small technical story of shifting fiduciary finance from the mathematics of profit extraction to the mathematics of equity paybacks, that opens up into
a big rambling rewrite of our social narrative of being human in society, through economy, using technology, money and the law, and
a new sociology of social choosing through institutions of agency, authority and acccounablity; that catalyzes
the social innovation of a new 21st century planetary citzenship in an economy of social cohesion on a planetary scale, within planetary limits, as a new 21st Century planetary commons, through citizens deliberations on the prudence of Pensions & Endowments in the exercise of the capacity they derive from their character in undivided loyalty to their aims.
The math we have – the mathematics of Corporate Power financed by Asset Ownership for Profit Extraction from Growth in Selling Price – is not giving us the economy we need and want: an economy of social cohesion on a planetary scale, within planetary limits, in the 21st Century, and beyond…
Asset Ownership financing Corporate Power through the financial mathematics of Profit Extraction from Growth in Selling Price
Social Cohesion on a planetary scale within planetary limits
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“ the … systems through which we perceive, decide, and act are increasingly misaligned with the realities we face”
through Asset Ownership financing Corporate Power through Profit Extraction from Growth and volatility in the market clearing prices for securities in the markets for maintaining volatility and growth in market clearing prices for those securities solely in the financial best interests of securities trading markets professionals, in reliance on the axiomatic assertion that more money in the securities trading markets (higher fees and profits for securities trading market professionals) will always also mean a better quality of life for us all
measured for GROWTH
GDP, 401(k), jobs, inflation, interest rates, etc.
managed for GROWTH
“ the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits
The Friedman Doctrine
“the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits”
The Friedman Doctrine
I see the economy we need today as being:
financed for PEACE
Institutions of Finance are constituted by society with authority to determine, predistributively, upstream from the stream of commerce, which choices will be made available. to popular choice, and who within the population will have the ability to pay the price to make those choices.
We need Finance to be financing patterns of availability and ability to pay that support social cohesion through technological suitability, habitat longevity and social equity on a planetary scale and within planetary limits.
measured for PEACE
We need Rubrics, more than Metrics: rules for connecting what businesses do business, and how those businesses do business, with the security and dignity of technology suitability, habitat longevity and social equity sufficient to sustain social cohesion on a planetary scale and within planetary limits.
managed for PEACE
Once Finance properly finances Enterprise for social cohesion, then business will be chosen and conducted for the Peace of security and dignity through technological suitability, habitat longevity and social equity sufficient to sustain social cohesion on a planetary scale and within planetary limits.
“The rights and needs of the general population, of consumers and wider society, need to be attached to the economy through non-shareholder purposed entities, financed by other than privately self-interested capital.”
Peter Ellis The Accidental Societist
What do you think about Economics?
from Mercantilism
through Capitalism
to Capacitism
I think about Economics as the study of the once and future history of enterprise for sharing, in exchange for a price paid in money or money equivalents, an abundance of uniquely-fit-to-the-circumstances-then-prevailing technology solutions to the everyday problems of everyday people living our own best lives as best we can, under the circumstances then prevailing, every day, through
research and scholarship on the once and future popularity – the flourish and fade of the social contract between Enterprise and Popular Choice – of adaptively evolving technology solutions to the everyday problems of everyday people living our own best lives, as best we can, every day,
to advise Financiers on
where they can and should be allocating the aggregations they control:
at what cost
for what time
on what terms
to curate the right economy for the circumstances then prevailing.
I think Economics can be, and should be, about the circumstances prevailing at the time, and how those circumstances have changed, in the past, and will change, in the future, over time, and how humanity evolves prosperous adaptations to those changing circumstances through inquiry for insight and new learning that can inform the innovation of new technologies and inspire the organization of new enterprises for making those new technologies more popular, as better fit to the circumstnaces then prevailing, causing previously popular choices to fade into history, as a good fit to the circumstances that prevailed at an earlier time, driving the flourish and fade of the social contracts between Enterprises and popular choice that is the true pulsebeat of human prosperity, and the real story of our human history.
“one long exercise in the augmentation of high cognition, so that our wisdom becomes strong eough to destroy resistance to change” – Charlie Munger, late of Berkshire-Hathaway
What do you think about the Economy?
What I don’t think is that the economy is a closed-loop machine of Production for Consumption and Consumption of Production in markets that use price to allocate scaricity, that calls on each of us and all of us to work hard to pruduce and consue more, so that the markets can give us more, in reliance on assurances that:
more will always be better; and
we each, as freely self-determining market participants, will always be perfectly free to determine freely, each for ourselves, personally and privately, our own fair share of this more that is always better.
I see lots of problems with this familiar story of the economy.
Problems with the Production for Consumption Story of the Economy
Another is that there is no society in this economy. No social order, and so, no rubrics of social cohesion, and also no rubrics of social discord.
No Money
A third is that there is no money in this economy. Or at least no theory of money that helps us make the social power of money make sense to our common sense.
No Consequences
A fourth is that there are no consequences in this framing of the economy. Production is always beneficial. Consumption is always equitable. The Market is always perfectly self-regulating. Mysteriously, and magically. But unquestionably.
Except that it is not. There are always negative, as well as postive, consequences to our human use of technology. Prudent stewardship requires that we care about, and take care of, those consequences.
Human enterprise and exchange is filled with tensions, small and large: the drama of “interesting or intense conflicts of forces” (Merriam-Webster dictionary definition of the word, drama). But the currently customary framing of “production and consumption between firms and households” is silent about those tensions. It tells us nothing about structural inequities, or institutional accountability, leaving us to believe, instead, that there are no inequities, and no need for accountability.
Which lived experience tells us is not true.
“our current system does not deliver prosperity. It delivers wealth and power for the few, and a never-ending race for everyone else”
A fifth is that this familiar framing of the economy does not give us a frame within which we can ask ourselves, Do we have the right eonomy?
Within this frame the only rubric I can see is the metric of Growth: if the economy is growing, then this frame tells it is also right; if it is not growing, this framing tells us the economy is wrong. The more Growth, the more right.
A New Story
A New Story of a Human-Centered, Money-Powered, Socially-Curated, Adaptively Evolving Economy of Caring for the Consequences, Accountable for Individual and Shared Human Being and Wellbeing on a Planetary Scale, within Planetary Limits, to the Common Sense of What Makes Sense to a New 21st Century Planetary Citizenry in a New 21st Century Planetary Commons,.
THIS is a fiduciary story that is made possible by shifting fiduciary stewards of Pensions & Endowments into the new math of Equity Paybacks, setting them free from Asset Ownership financing Corporate Power thriough the financial mathematics of Profit Extraction from Growth in Selling Price, to curate through Fiduciary Finance the right businesses for curating the right technologies for curating the right choices for curating the right economy for curating the right society for curating the right future as our true frontier.
I don’t see a need for metrics.
I see a need for rubrics.
I don’t see a need for Growth.
I see a need for PEACE.
I see a need for Social Cohesion.
I see a need for Humanity in the economy as:.
a mutual aid society
for sharing an abundance of technology solutions to the everyday problems of everyday people living our own best lives as best we can under the circumstances then prevailing: the Promethean gift of fire
through networks of connections for enterprise, and exchange: the Biblical curse of toil
using money, as a call upon the time, effort and expertise of others through legal instruments for effecting transactions between people separated by distances of time, of place and of social connection (“you don’t have to trust the other person, if you can trust their money”) as “a technology communities use to trade debts” (Michael Mainelli) through which society directs our individual time, effort and expertise into some activities (“you can make good money doing that”) and away from others (“there’s no money in that”)
creating through curation our shared social worlds of availability and ability to pay
out of which we each create through curation our own personal and private worlds through our own individual determinations of fitness for purpose, and price for performance
within built environments of Urban, Rural, Curated and Left-Alone landscapes
on the creative edge of a constantly changing and adaptively evolving Human partnership with Nature, and each other
choosing new beginnings from time to time and over time, to fit the changing circumstances of the changing times
through inquiry for
insight and new learning
that informs innovative new technologies that inspire innovative new enterprises for making new choices more popular to popular choice, as better fit to the circumstances then prevailing, causing previously popular choices to fade into history as a good fit to the circumstances that prevailed at an earlier time
driving the flourish and fade of the social contract between Enterprise and Popular Choice that is the real engine of our human prosperity, and the true story of our human history
I see a need for a Human-centered economy that is powered by the social energy of Money
as a legal instrument for effecting transactions between people separated by distances of time, of place and of social connection (“you do not have to trust the other person, if you can trust their money”)
that is “a technology that communities use to trade debts” (Michael Mainelli)
that society uses to direct the time, effort and expertise of individuals towards some activities (“you can make good money doing that”) and away from others (“there’s no money in that”).
I see a need for a Human-centered, Money-powered economy that is curated socially, through institutions of Civil Society, Finance, Enterprise and Politics.
to evolve prosperous adaptations to life’s constant changes to offer choices, and make the ability to choose, on a planetary scale and within planetary limits across five core needs of being human:
Energy and Matter, and all the raw materials
Nutrition – food and water, and all the many technologies that create through curation abundance, security and dignity
Habitation – clothing and construction for comfort and protection and associated infrastructure for utilities and transport and our occupancy of space in place more broadly
Helathcare – physical and, for lack of a better word, spiritual of people living in our own worlds with our shared worlds within the world of Nature; and
Knowledge, Information and Communication for connecting individuals to shared puprose in community, on a planetary scale, within planetary limits.
What do you think about the Individual in Society?
What do you think about
“the way we have been taught to think about money is at best out-dated, at worst, plain wrong. And it’s at the heart of much of our crises.”
We need to correct and update our way of thinking about money.
And that’s a problem.
Because the way we have been taught to think about money is so incomplete and incoherent, such a tangled web of self-interest masquerading as disinterested truth, that contemporary stories about money make no sense no our common sense, unless our own self-interest aligns with the masquerade of disinterest.
the way we are being taught to think about money makes money feel terrifying to too many
The problem this creates is that untangling the tangle – to “slay the dragons” of misunderstanding about money – becomes:
“
one long exercise in augmentation of high cognition, so that our wisdom becomes strong enough to destroy wrong thinking maintained by resistance to change”
Charlie Munger, late of Berkshire-Hathaway
The problem is that this augmentation of high cognition is not a linear process. We cannot go step by step.
There are no IKEA-style assembly instructions.
We each have to find our own point of beginning, and pull on the threads of chaos and confusion as we encounter them, to separate self-interest from disinterest, until the new story, which is a more correct story, begins to make sense to our own common sense.
It’s a Make-Your-Own-Adventure.
What do you think about
The (universal) law of fiduciary duty requires:
the PRUDENCE of the prudent person familiar with such matters
in the exercise of CAPACITY derived,
under the CIRCUMSTANCES then prevailing
from their legally constutited CHARACTER
as large, programmatic and self-perpetuating social rusts taht are “forever” machines
in undvided loyalty to their contractually specified AIMS
to assure
income security in a dignified future
to so many, directly,
as a private benefit
that it is also, of necessity
for us all, consequently,
as a public good
What do you think about the capacity of Fiduciary Money under the circumstances now prevailing?
Profit Extraction from GROWTH
Equity Paybacks for Social Cohesion
The drama of 2008 was all they knew about financial markets.
Shifting to Equity Paybacks 