3c hapter - Index of

218 Locavesting
Van Patten, a triathlete who lives in the hedge fund haven
of Greenwich, Connecticut, has become a respected voice in the
local investing community. He shares a growing view that socially
responsible investing, which often means simply screening out
undesirable investments, is limited. The money invested in a large
company, even if it is truly a good corporate citizen, does not
necessarily trickle down to communities. “Investors need to have
viable alternatives to invest in companies they know and have a relationship
with,” says Van Patten. Local investing is more like proactive
impact investing, he says, where there are very clear benefi ts
in addition to fi nancial gain.
From Van Patten’s vantage point, some of the local exchange
ambitions are, well, naive. Rather than view Wall Street as the
enemy, he says, the local exchanges must learn to embrace and
work within the system. “It’s a regulatory business. It’s not like
running a shoe shop,” says Van Patten. “They’ve got to let the
people who understand this business do what they do.” It just so
happens that Mission Markets, a registered broker- dealer, could
serve as a platform and provide legal cover and expertise for
emerging local exchanges. A local exchange could have its own
distinct portal on the Mission Markets platform, for a fee. Among
the small cast of aspiring local exchanges most are weighing that
option against building their own systems. It’s a question of economics.
But also philosophy. The Lancaster-Toronto-Hawaii coalition
favors a shared “open source” approach, with the goal of
getting more people to understand the mechanics of a stock market,
rather than it remaining a Wall Street black art. “I think this
kind of openness and accountability will help businesses, investors,
and the community,” says Fisher.
Alternative Markets
If the idea of local exchanges seems farfetched or a little too retro
for our globalized age, consider that it is just one concept being
fl oated for an alternative to our casino- like markets. (And heck,
if 1970s hair bands can make a comeback why not local stock
exchanges?) In fact, ideas are bubbling up from some surprising