Synopsis
Key Features Offers a bold solution to our recurring economic crises: innovative new forms of institutional ownership Takes the reader on a global journey to meet the people and organizations that are pioneering new forms of life-sustaining ownership By the author of the classic The Divine Right of Capital About the Book: Owing Our Future Looking around at the wreckage left in the wake of the worldeconomy's latest crisis, veteran business journalist Marjorie Kellynoticed that some institutions were left relatively unscathed. Whatdid they have in common? The key, Kelly realized, is seeminglyobscure: ownership. Prominent among the survivors wereorganizations that combined the flexibility of traditional privateownership with a focus on the common good. As long as businesses are set up to focus exclusively onmaximizing quarterly returns for a limited group of individuals,the economy will be plagued by destructive boom-bust cycles. Butnow people are experimenting with new forms of ownership. We are inthe midst of the most creative period of economic innovation sincethe dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Kelly calls these new formsgenerative: aimed at creating the conditions for life for manygenerations to come. They are in contrast to the dominant ownershipdesigns of today, which can be called extractive: aimed atextracting short-term financial wealth. To understand these emerging ownership alternatives, Kellyreports from all over the world, visiting a community-owned windfacility in Massachusetts, a lobster cooperative in Maine, amultibillion-dollar employee-owned department-store chain inLondon, a foundation-owned pharmaceutical in Denmark, afarmer-owned dairy in Wisconsin, and other places where an economythat works for all is being built. This is not a moment for old solutions and tired approaches. Aswe enter a new era of limits, alternative ownership designs canhelp it become an era of fairness, sustainability, andcommunity. About the Author: Marjorie Kelly Marj
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