Essential Knowledge for Transition Times --Economics for Sustainable Communities

Worried by peak oil, climate change, the federal debt, income inequality? Dreaming of a more cooperative life in cohousing or an ecovillage?   Let's better understand the global economy, financial systems and their impact on local communities. What are the intervention points for lasting change? Explore real-world alternatives that support a more stable and thriving, creative, sane, democratic, and beautiful future!

Knowledge is power - especially the power to create alternatives that can truly sustain us and our habitats over time.

This is a special four-part series with Marco Vangelisti, from Slow Money and Community Capital Caucus, and other featured guests. Join us for 1, 2, 3 or all 4.  Bring your dinner if you like (Cafe Valparaiso is across the street). There will be plenty of time for Q&A, with refreshments and social time afterward.

RSVP below, drop-ins welcome as space permits, but pay in advance to guarantee your place. Price is $20 for first-time attenders; $10 for repeat offenders (you came to Talk 1) and EBCOHO supporting members.

March 1 - Session 1: How the international banking and money systems work and how they affect our lives. Learn how we could tackle the national debt without raising taxes or cutting services. We will look at real-world alternatives to the current money and banking systems.

March 8 - Session 2: How does our global economic system work? Markets, debt, deficits and currencies -- what changes are needed and why?  Learn about the many on-the-ground experiments around the world to shift the economic system and how you can participate.

March 22 - Session 3: What is financial capitalism and how has it driven the US and global economy? How are current systems of investment (from your IRA to big banks, pension funds, venture capital, and hedge funds) affecting our lives at the local level?  We will look at alternative ways people are investing for a better future.

March 29 - Session 4: How did housing become so expensive? What challenges and choices do we have beyond the debt-driven and carbon-intensive models of the past 80 years? How do small-scale cohousing, and ecovillage communities matter in a transition economy?   Betsy Morris will add an overview of the affordable housing and cohousing approaches to Marco's global finance perspective,  including Slow Money and shared housing investment opportunities, followed by open discussion on the themes and strategies presented in the prior three session, and ideas for next steps.

If you can't make it, check out this helpful video link: How does the current banking system affect you?

BIOGRAPHIES

Marco Vangelisti -- Marco came to the US as a Fulbright Scholar in mathematics and economics at the University of California in Berkeley. After a stint in the financial industry, Marco worked as visual artist on a full-time basis for 5 years and obtained a MFA focusing on the intersection between public art and ecology. He later worked for 6 years for Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC (“GMO”), managing investment equity portfolios primarily on behalf of large foundations and endowments. In April 2009 Marco left the finance industry and has since been instrumental in the formation and development of the Slow Money Northern California chapter where he currently leads the investor working group. Marco also serves on the Slow Money national steering committee and represents Northern CA in the national Slow Money Chapter Council. In the second half of 2012 Marco led the design and launch of the Soil Trust, a Slow Money philanthropic revolving fund investing in small food and farming enterprises around the county. Marco is currently developing an Economics for Transition curriculum for engaged citizens and activists.

Betsy Morris - Cohousing coach, resident of Berkeley Cohousing, co-host of East Bay Cohousing with her husband Raines Cohen, A Slow Money investor, she is exploring ways to grow a shared housing lenders group in the Bay Area.  She is founding partner of Planning for Sustainable Communities, a small research and planning consultancy, working primarily with community development corporations and anti-poverty agencies. She has been involved in community organizing and sustainability initiatives since her 20's. Betsy has a doctorate in City & Regional Development from UC Berkeley and has taught at UC Berkeley, SFSU, and USC.  Former research director of Coho/US, she has written and led numerous events on affordable cohousing for professionals and community seekers, and (with Raines) organizes talks, tours, and open space conferences around the country.