In this talk, Post Carbon Fellow Michael Shuman presents the idea of a stimulus package in local stock exchange. The key goals are to transform local businesses in small-stock companies and to create modest, intrastate electronic exchanges. With these simple and sensible legal reforms it could correct this market failure and bring literally trillions of new investment dollars into our communities.
Michael Shuman on Local Stock Exchanges
By Michael Shuman, originally published by TEDxUVM
August 5, 2010
Michael Shuman
Michael Shuman is director of research for Cutting Edge Capital, director of research and economic development at the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE), and a Fellow of Post Carbon Institute. He holds an AB with distinction in economics and international relations from Stanford University and a JD from Stanford Law School. He has led community-based economic-development efforts across the country and has authored or edited seven previous books, including The Small Mart Revolution: How Local Businesses Are Beating the Global Competition (2006) and Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in the Global Age (1998).
In recent years, Michael has led community-based economic-development efforts in St. Lawrence County (NY), Hudson Valley (NY), Katahdin Region (ME), Martha’s Vineyard (MA), and Carbondale (CO), and served as a senior editor for the recently published Encyclopedia of Community. He has given an average of more than one invited talk per week for 25 years throughout the United States and the world.
Request an interview
Request as a speaker
View Michael’s speaking terms.
Tags: local investing
Related Articles
World Localization Day: Helena Norberg-Hodge on rebuilding local economies
By Next Economy Now, LIFT Economy
In honor of World Localization Day, Helena Norberg-Hodge, founder of Local Futures and pioneer of the Localization movement, reflects on decades of work as an activist and the dangers that global, deregulated corporations pose to the global economy and the environmental movement.
June 19, 2026
Seeds Series Volume 2: Building beyond systems that oppress
By Bill Baue, Bill Baue Substack
This chapter from r3.0’s latest Seeds Series explores how societies can move beyond extractive economic systems by embracing systems thinking, place-based resilience and regenerative approaches to food, energy and community development.
June 4, 2026
Every warship launched is a local disaster: How U.S. military spending drains local communities
By Frida Berrigan, Tom Dispatch
As Trump’s Iran war devours billions, a Connecticut town closes a public school and shuffles vulnerable kids to plug a budget gap. Drawing on Eisenhower’s warning about “guns” stealing from the hungry and cold, this piece discusses how runaway U.S. militarism quietly wrecks local lives and communities.
June 1, 2026




